Each Way at Cheltenham: More Than Half a Bet
Cheltenham each way betting is one of the most frequently placed bet types during festival week, and for good reason. When only 29.2% of favourites have won at the festival since 2000, according to data compiled by Betway, the idea of needing your horse to finish first starts to feel like a narrow demand. Each way opens the door wider. Instead of staking everything on a win, you split your stake into two halves — one on the horse to win, one on the horse to finish in the places. If your pick runs well but just misses out on first, the place half still returns.
For casual punters arriving at Cheltenham with a shortlist of fancies, each way is often the default. But treating it as a reflex rather than a decision is where money gets wasted. The place half is where festival value hides — but only if the terms, the field size and the price all line up. A 2/1 shot each way in a five-runner race is a fundamentally different proposition from a 14/1 pick in a twenty-runner handicap. Understanding that difference is what separates a sensible each way bet from a lazy one.
This guide breaks down the mechanics, explains how place terms shift across different Cheltenham races, and identifies the conditions where each way genuinely outperforms a straight win bet.
How Each Way Works: Win Part, Place Part and the Fraction
An each way bet is two bets in one, which means your total stake is doubled. If you place £10 each way, you are spending £20: £10 on the horse to win and £10 on the horse to finish in the designated places. This is the first thing newcomers get wrong — they budget for one bet and end up spending twice what they intended.
The win part is straightforward. If your horse wins, both halves pay out: the win bet at full odds and the place bet at a fraction of those odds. If the horse finishes second, third or fourth (depending on the race), only the place half returns. If the horse finishes outside the places, you lose everything.
That fraction is critical. At Cheltenham, place terms are typically one-quarter of the win odds for non-handicap races and one-fifth for handicap races with larger fields. So a horse at 10/1 in a Grade 1 chase would pay 10/4 (or 5/2) on the place part, while the same horse at 10/1 in a big-field handicap would pay 10/5 (or 2/1) on the place portion. The difference seems marginal until you calculate returns across multiple bets over the festival.
Here is a practical example. You back a horse at 12/1 each way with a £5 stake, so £10 total. The place terms are one-quarter the odds. If the horse wins, your win half returns £65 (£60 profit plus £5 stake) and your place half returns £20 (£15 profit at 3/1 plus £5 stake), giving you £85 total. If the horse finishes in the places but does not win, you collect only the £20 from the place half — a £10 total return against your £10 outlay, so you break even. At longer prices, the place return becomes more generous. At shorter prices, it can barely cover your total stake, which is precisely why each way on short-priced horses is often a poor value play.
Bookmakers set the place terms, not the punter, and these terms are not negotiable. They are standardised across the industry for UK horse racing, though occasional enhanced place promotions during Cheltenham week may extend the number of places paid — something worth checking before you commit your stake.
Place Terms at the Festival: What Changes by Field Size
Not every Cheltenham race carries the same each way terms, and the difference comes down to the number of runners. Standard UK rules work on a sliding scale. Races with five to seven runners typically pay two places at one-quarter the odds. Eight or more runners in a non-handicap race usually pay three places, again at one-quarter. Handicap races with sixteen or more runners — the big-field battles like the Coral Cup, County Hurdle or Martin Pipe — pay four places, but at one-fifth the odds rather than one-quarter.
Cheltenham’s programme is designed with this split in mind. The Grade 1 championship races tend to attract smaller, more concentrated fields. The Gold Cup might have twelve to fourteen runners, while the Champion Hurdle and Champion Chase often see fewer than ten. In these races, three places at one-quarter odds is the norm. The competitive depth is fierce, but the place terms are relatively punter-friendly on a per-fraction basis.
The handicaps are the opposite story. A fully subscribed Coral Cup can feature twenty-four runners, which triggers four places but at the shorter one-fifth fraction. The bigger field makes it statistically more likely that a decent horse will finish in the first four, but the reduced fraction means you need longer-priced selections for the place return to be meaningful. Backing a 5/1 shot each way at one-fifth odds gives a place return of just 1/1 — your stake back, nothing more. That is not value; that is treading water.
There is a tactical wrinkle worth noting. Some bookmakers offer extra-place promotions during Cheltenham, paying out on five or even six places in selected handicaps. These offers change the maths significantly and can turn a marginal each way bet into a strong one. Always check whether extra places are available before you lock in your selections for the big-field races.
When Each Way Offers Genuine Value — and When It Doesn’t
Each way betting rewards a specific type of selection: a horse whose chance of placing is significantly higher than its chance of winning. That sounds obvious, but most punters never frame it that way. They see 10/1 and think “decent price, I’ll go each way” without considering whether the horse is genuinely likely to run into a top-three or top-four finish.
The races where each way shines are the big-field handicaps. In the Coral Cup, for example, the favourite has won just 8% of the time since 2000, according to Betway. That means the winning horse is almost always at a bigger price, and the places are fought over by an unpredictable scrum of runners. In these conditions, backing a well-handicapped horse at 14/1 or 16/1 each way gives you a genuine shot at returns even without a win. The place half does the heavy lifting.
Contrast that with a race like the Champion Chase, which often has six or seven runners and a short-priced favourite. If you back the second favourite at 3/1 each way, the place return at one-quarter odds is just 3/4 — less than your stake. You need the horse to win for the bet to be worthwhile. In a small-field race with a dominant market leader, a straight win bet on your pick (or even a win-only bet on a longer-priced outsider) is usually sharper than each way.
The sweet spot for each way at Cheltenham sits in races with double-digit fields, prices of 8/1 and above, and competitive depth where the favourite is not odds-on. When those conditions align, the place half becomes genuinely profitable. When they do not — when the field is small, the price is short or the favourite is dominant — each way is just a more expensive way to lose half your stake.
One final consideration: the going. Softer ground at Cheltenham tends to increase the variability of results, which in turn boosts the probability that longer-priced horses run into the places. If the going is officially soft or heavy, the case for each way in handicaps gets even stronger, because the ground levels the talent gap and rewards stamina over class. Check the going report before you commit — it might be the factor that turns a borderline each way selection into a confident one.