Horse Racing: Cheltenham Festival, Day One, Live!

Preamble And so it begins. Four days of optimism and despair, ups and downs, losers and more losers. Day one of the Cheltenham Festival should be a cracker, with Detroit City trying to buck the trends by winning the Triumph Hurdle as a five-year-old, and Fair Along and My De Solzen slugging it out in the Arkle. Those looking for tips could do worse than to listen to Ron Cox, the Guardian's chief tipster, and Eddie "The Shoe" Fremantle, the Observer's excellent betting expert, and completely ignoring everything I have to say.

Competition Every day this week, there's the chance for you to win a £100 bet (first prize) and a £25 bet (second prize) with Blue Square. Simply email your nap and next best selections for Cheltenham today (Channel 4 TV races between 2pm-4pm only) to me before 2pm today, the winner(s) will be the ones with the best points tally.

Rules:


· Points are calculated as £1 on each selection, so a loser costs you one point, a 25-1 winner gets you 25 points.

· Only winners count. In the event of a dead-heat for first place in any race, you get the odds to a half-point stake.

· In the event of a tie (unlikely, unless no one tips a winner), we'll draw the winners out of a hat.