We’re into March sports fans and in the UK, spring is doing its best to get itself sprung. As any discerning sports enthusiast will know, that can only mean one thing, the Cheltenham national hunt festival is with us again. The festival falls a week or so earlier than usual this year, running from the 11th until Gold Cup day on the 15th. We’ll return to this subject shortly but I’m told that some other sporting events are taking place so we better get those out of the way first!

The Formula 1 season starts this month and all joking aside this is going to hopefully be one most exciting and open seasons we’ve had for many years. The constructors championship is looking mighty close between McClaren and Ferrari according to the odds layers and the drivers contest has a very open look to it with Lando Norris just shading Max Verstappen for favoritism, with Charles le Clerc and Lewis Hamilton not far behind. The season gets underway in Australia from the 14th until the 16th and then moves to China from the 21st until the 23rd. If all the cars live up to their potential, this looks like a season to savor for F1 fans.

The Premier League has a relatively quiet month with only two matchdays scheduled and the Champions League, currently at the final stages of the league format, is a mystery as far as the last 16

fixtures are concerned. I did do some digging at time of writing but found no confirmed dates anywhere.

The build up to the Masters is well underway and two big PGA

tournaments are scheduled for March including the “fifth major”, the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, which runs from the 13th until the 16th. The Arnold Palmer invitational, another

20-million-dollar event, tees off on the 6th until the 9th.

Back to the Cheltenham festival and there was talk earlier in

the season that perhaps the Irish, headed by the Willie Mullins

Battalions, may not be as strong this year. This wishful thinking was put to bed by the results at the Dublin racing festival, where a host

of top class horses was unleashed by the Closutton based maestro. Nicky Henderson is flying the flag for England and has some well fancied runners for the championship races, but I expect Ireland

to continue its dominance of recent years, with a few notable

exceptions. That’s about it for March and if you’re a horse racing or F1 fan, there’s plenty to look forward to.