Cheltenham Festival odds should be taken on horses with best festival form Talk of Cheltenham form being all important is rife at this time of year going into the Cheltenham Festival but is there any fact behind peoples" suggestions that a horse must be proven at the course? There is no denying that the races at the Cheltenham Festival are as competitive as races come so a horse not only needs to be immensely talented but must also excel in the conditions the course offers. Finding horses who do well at Cheltenham can certainly pay dividends. Check out the latest Cheltenham Festival odds here. No one would really recommend backing every horse at the Cheltenham Festival who has run at Cheltenham before, but having course form is clearly helpful going into the big festival. Two years ago, if you'd backed every single horse with Cheltenham form, good or bad, you would have ended up backing no less than 270 horses. This strategy would have produced a profit though, a £1 bet on each horse who has run at Prestbury Park before would have yielded a profit of £16.77. The same strategy last season wouldn't have worked quite so well, 300 bets would have been required and a £1 bet on each of them would have produced a £57 loss. You still would have backed 20 winners though, including Boston's Angel at 16/1, Carlito Brigante at 16/1, Holmwood Legend at 25/1, Zensky at 33/1 and Oiseau De Nuit at 40/1. This just goes to show how many Cheltenham Festival winners do have Cheltenham form. Sometimes just looking at Cheltenham form isn't enough though. There are plenty of races run at Cheltenham in the lead up to the Festival and although many are very good races, there are no guarantees they will be anywhere near as strong as the races at the Festival itself. So, what if we narrow things down to horses who have not just run at Cheltenham but run well at a previous Cheltenham Festival? By backing horses who have placed, or even better won at the Cheltenham Festival there is certainly less risk involved as you will be backing proven quality horses that are proven in these conditions. If you'd backed all horses who have previously placed at the Festival two years ago, you'd have backed ten winners including Weapons Amnesty and Pigeon Island, who went off at 10/1 and 16/1 respectively. A repeat of this strategy last year would have produced eight winners including Al Ferof at 10/1, Sizing Europe at 10/1 and Buena Vista at 20/1. This seems an especially good system for the Championship races at the Festival as last year you would have also backed Sizing Europe, Big Bucks and Long Run and all three horses are the favourites to win their races once again. Horses with strong Festival form dominate the betting in many races this year with winners of last year's Festival races defending their crowns. On Wednesday, Sizing Europe is a shade odds on to retain the Champion Chase, Big Bucks is likely to be the shortest price favourite of the week when he goes for a fourth World Hurdle on Thursday and Long Run is 2/1 to make it two Gold Cups out of two. Other very strong Festival form on offer this year includes Grand Crus, who is favourite for the RSA Chase, he chased home Big Bucks in last year's World Hurdle whilst Peddlers Cross is a wame favourite in the Jewson Novices Chase after finishing second to Hurricane Fly in last year's Champion Hurdle. Visit Cheltenham-Betting.co.uk for the best Cheltenham Festival tips.