The Cheltenham Festival is one of sport’s most enthralling extravaganzas and in 2011 the nation will once again be swept by horse racing fever as gamblers and racing fanatics prepare to embark on an unrivalled path of excitement.

The 2011 Cheltenham Festival will run from 15th to 18th March and the course can expect to welcome over 200,000 racegoers from all over the world, with it believed that more than £500 million will be gambled throughout the week.

The greatest jump horses in the world will all head to the Festival in search of a place in the record books and just minutes after Imperial Commander crossed the line to win the 2010 Cheltenham Gold Cup, the nation’s leading bookmakers were already queuing up to price up next year’s renewal of the great race.

Will Imperial Commander retain racing’s most sought-after crown or will Denman and Kauto Star return to their best to battle it out in the fourth instalment of their rivalry? Perhaps there will be a young pretender waiting in the wings ready to assume the void left by racing’s finest generation of jumpers for decades?

While it is impossible to know what next year’s meeting will bring one thing is for certain: the action is sure to be explosive, exhilarating and thoroughly intriguing.