Where our data comes from
Sources and Data
Where every number on this site comes from, how reliable we consider each source, why prices are currently labelled DEMO, and the list of things we have deliberately not published because they are unverified.
On this page
Sources and how we rate them
Each source in our database carries a reliability rating from 1 (demonstration data) to 5 (official or primary). The rating governs how a fact is labelled and whether it needs a second source.
| Source | Type | Reliability | Used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Jockey Club (Cheltenham Racecourse) | Official | 5 | Festival dates, day names, course, race programme, going |
| Sporting Life official result pages | Reference | 5 | 2026 results, leading trainer and jockey |
| Racing Post | Reference | 5 | Results reports, sponsorship, going history |
| BBC Sport — Horse Racing | News feed | 5 | Headlines |
| ESPN Horse Racing | Reference | 4 | Prestbury Cup 2026 |
| Sky Sports Racing | Reference | 4 | 2026 results cross-check, 2025 programme changes |
| RTÉ Sport | Reference | 4 | 2026 results cross-check |
| Wikipedia (CC BY-SA) | Reference | 3 | Historical winners tables, trainer and jockey totals, course facts |
| Third-party ante-post reports | Reference | 2 | Indicative 2027 prices only — never presented as live odds |
| Demo racing data / demo odds | Simulated | 1 | Placeholder entries and prices, always labelled DEMO |
Rules that follow from the ratings:
- A fact from a source rated 3 or below is cross-checked against a second source where it matters (results, SPs, totals) or flagged as single-source where it has not been.
- A fact from a source rated 2 is shown only with attribution and a date, and never as live data.
- Data rated 1 is never mixed with real data. Every simulated price carries an is-demo flag in the database and a DEMO badge on the page; the seed process refuses to run if a simulated price is found without the flag.
Results and records
- Every result row stores the URL it came from, the source's reliability rating and the date it was captured.
- The 2026 Festival: winner and runner-up verified for 15 of the 28 races; one further winner (Meetmebythesea, Ben Pauling) confirmed by the Racing Post without the race yet recorded. The other 12 races are not shown until verified.
- Championship races: the last ten winners (2017–2026) with trainer, jockey and SP, from Wikipedia yearly pages cross-checked for 2026. The 2017–2025 Stayers' Hurdle SPs rest on a single Wikipedia table and are flagged as such.
- Trainer and jockey Festival totals are as of March 2026, from Wikipedia and Racing Post; Ben Pauling's total (5) is held with lower confidence and labelled.
- Distances for the four championship races are verified to the yard; the other 24 races are shown at furlong level pending the official 2027 racecard.
Prices
No licensed odds provider is connected as of 14 September 2026. Therefore:
| What you see | What it is |
|---|---|
| A price with a DEMO badge | A simulated price generated around indicative levels, for demonstrating the site. Not a real bookmaker price. |
| "Indicative ante-post price reported by third parties, seen [date]" | A price reported by a third-party site on the date given, with no named bookmaker verified. |
| A price with a bookmaker name and timestamp | Not yet available. Will appear only when a licensed feed is connected. |
Timestamps
Every data-bearing page shows the timestamp of the data it uses and every article shows published, updated, reviewed and next-review dates. Times are UK time with the zone shown.
Deliberately unpublished: the unverified list
As of 14 September 2026 the following are known to us from secondary sources or not at all, and are not published as fact anywhere on the site:
- The official 2027 order of running and race times, including whether the championship races are the fifth race of each day.
- The official naming status of "Style Wednesday" for the Wednesday.
- Willie Mullins' leading-trainer title count: 11 (Sporting Life) or 13 (one aggregator). We publish 11 with the discrepancy flagged.
- The 2017–2025 Stayers' Hurdle starting prices beyond a single table (2023 and 2026 cross-checked).
- The 2014 Prestbury Cup scoreline (single secondary source). We publish only that Britain won the first edition.
- Cheltenham Hill's elevation (sources conflict) and the origin of the 67,500 capacity figure.
- The cap applied to combined Rule 4 deductions when more than one horse is withdrawn.
- Any 2027 ante-post price from a named bookmaker.
- Whether The New Lion is a confirmed 2027 Champion Hurdle target.
- The first-run years and naming dates of the championship races as held in our race database (Gold Cup 1924, Champion Hurdle 1927, Champion Chase 1959 and renamed 1980, Stayers' Hurdle 1972), which are shown with that caveat.
If you can help us verify any of the above with a primary source, please contact us.