bet365 Scottish Cheltenham Trials: Dates, runners, history & more

The Cheltenham Festival countdown is intense once the year has turned and Scotland's major pre-Cotswolds fanfare arrives at Musselburgh in early February.

The two-day bet365 Scottish Cheltenham Trials meeting takes place on 3rd and 4th February and is the pinnacle of the Jump season at Musselburgh. 

With more than £400,000 on offer across the weekend, the standalone value of the meeting is clear to see and it attracts plenty of Britain's best-known names to the Edinburgh venue.

Scottish Cheltenham Trials Date 

The bet365 Scottish Cheltenham Trials take place on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th February, 2024 and it is considered the biggest Cheltenham Trials weekend in the UK.

The Musselburgh meeting runs alongside the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown, making it the most hotly-anticipated weekend of racing action in the countdown to Cheltenham in March.

Scottish Cheltenham Trials venue

The bet365 Scottish Cheltenham Trials are held at Musselburgh Racecourse on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

The racecourse is just six miles from the city centre of Scotland's capital, allowing racegoers a base in one of the United Kingdom's most vibrant cities for this two-day National Hunt feast.

A right-handed oval track a little over a mile-and-a-quarter in total, it is almost flat with sharp bends and tends to favour handy types as opposed to gallopers.

The last half-mile has a distinct downhill feel to it, ensuring those coming from off the pace have to rely on plenty of ability to get there, though it is often deemed easier for hold-up horses on testing ground. 

Scottish Cheltenham Trials how to watch

All racing from Britain and Ireland, including the bet365 Scottish Cheltenham Trials Weekend, is available to watch via the bet365 Sports Live Streaming platform.

Selected races from the meeting will be shown on ITV for terrestrial viewers in Britain, while every race across Saturday and Sunday is available on Racing TV.

Scottish Cheltenham Trials details 

Saturday is headlined by the £100,000 bet365 Edinburgh National, which was won in 2023 by Magna Sam for trainer Alistair Ralph.

Also scheduled for day one is the bet365 Scottish Stayers' Novices' Hurdle and the bet365 Scottish County Hurdle.

On to Sunday and the most valuable race on the card is the bet365 Scottish Triumph Hurdle, a Listed contest staged over two-miles.

The race went to Afadil in 2023, as Britain's champion trainer Paul Nicholls enhanced his fine course record at Musselburgh.

The bet365 Scottish Champion Handicap Chase also takes place on day two and it went to Ann Hamilton with Pay The Piper in 2023.

Sunday also brings the bet365 Scottish Supreme Novices' Hurdle, won last year by Dancia for trainer Fergal O'Brien and jockey Paddy Brennan.

Scottish Cheltenham Trials famous winners 

Frodon, Mighty Thunder and Greaneteen are some of the horses who have scored at the bet365 Scottish Cheltenham Trials weekend before going on to major wins at the spring festivals. 

The recently-retired and much-loved Frodon won the Future Champions Novice Chase at this meeting in 2017 and would go on to become a Cheltenham Festival winner via the Ryanair Chase in 2019, before adding the King George at Kempton in 2020. 

Mighty Thunder won the bet365 Edinburgh National here in 2021 and was the Scottish Grand National hero a little over two months later.

Greaneteen, meanwhile, landed the bet365 Scottish Champion Chase at this meeting in 2022 and would add the Grade 1 bet365 Celebration Chase at Sandown Park 14 months later.

Paul Nicholls' charge also scooped a Tingle Creek for himself at the Esher venue in December 2021.

Nicholls, alongside Scotland's leading jumps handler and dual Aintree Grand National winner Lucinda Russell, joins the likes of Fergal O'Brien and Sandy Thomson in being excellent supporters of Jump racing at Musselburgh.

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