Cheltenham 2026 Tips, Odds and News

In 1860, a new jumps meeting called the Grand National Hunt Meeting took place at Market Harborough. Over the next 40 years, this Festival was moved between different locations around the country. 

In 1910, improvements were made to Prestbury Park racecourse in Gloucestershire. The meeting was staged in Cheltenham for the fifth time, and organisers decided it would remain at Prestbury Park for the foreseeable future.

Thus, the Cheltenham Festival was born and it quickly become one of the most popular sporting events in Britain. 

The oldest Championship race at the Cheltenham Festival is the Stayers’ Hurdle, which was created in 1912. The Cheltenham Gold Cup was initially a lead-up race to the County Hurdle, which was the feature race on day four. In 1924, the Gold Cup was promoted to Grade One status and soon transformed into the most important race of the week.

Three years later, the Champion Hurdle was introduced to the Cheltenham Festival. It wasn’t until 1957 that the Champion Chase was added to the schedule.

For much of its existence, the Cheltenham Festival was a three-day event, kicking off on Wednesday before culminating on the Friday. In 2005, organisers added a fourth day to the schedule. Although there has been talk of adding a fifth day in recent years, the Cheltenham Festival remains a four-day meeting, each featuring a seven-strong racecard.

In 1943 and 1944, the Cheltenham Festival was cancelled due to World War II. In 2001, the national foot-and-mouth disease crisis saw the meeting cancelled for the first time since 1944.

All of National Hunt racing’s most famous names have won during the Cheltenham Festival. The leading trainer is Willie Mullins, who leapt to the head of a list which includes Nicky Henderson, Paul Nicholls and Martin Pipe when he claimed the Top Trainer prize for the sixth time in 2019.

Ruby Walsh is the most successful jockey in the history of the Cheltenham Festival, having won at the meeting on 32 occasions during his illustrious career. AP McCoy sits second on the list, ahead of Barry Geraghty, and Richard Johnson.

Willie Mullins’ Quevega holds the record for most wins by a horse at the Cheltenham Festival, having won the Mares’ Hurdle for six years in succession between 2009 and 2014.

The previous record was held by Golden Miller, who had won the Gold Cup five years in a row in the 1930s. Two-time Grand National winner, Tiger Roll has won four Cheltenham Festival races during his career so far, securing wins in the Triumph Hurdle, the National Hunt Chase and two victories in the Cross Country Chase.

In 2021, the Mares' Chase was added to the schedule on Gold Cup day. Plenty of changes have been made since in an attempt to make the racing more competitive, including the demotion of the National Hunt Chase back to a handicap, the removal of the two-and-a-half-mile Grade One novices' chase, and the introduction of the Jack Richards Handicap for novice chasers over the same course-and-distance.

In an attempt to emphasise the stamina of those taking part, the Mares' Hurdle was moved from day one to day three of the Cheltenham Festival in 2026. This now forms a triple-header of Grade One races on St Patrick's Day, with the Stayers' Hurdle and Ryanair Chase following on from the Mares' Hurdle. As a result, the Plate Handicap Chase was moved to the opening day of the meeting.

There are three racecourses at Cheltenham racecourse, and all three are used during the Cheltenham Festival.

Days one and two of the Cheltenham Festival are run on the Old Course. Speed is more important than stamina on the Old Course, hence why it's used for races like the Supreme Novices' Hurdle, the Champion Hurdle and the Champion Chase. 

On the hurdles course, only one obstacle is jumped on the home straight. Two fences are crammed into the final half-furlong on the chase course, making the second-last obstacle the trickiest on the track, as it's placed so close to the final bend.

For days three and four, the action moves to the New Course. Stamina is all-important on this track, making it an ideal setting for races like the Stayers' Hurdle and the Gold Cup.

Only two hurdles are jumped on the final mile of the New Course, which tends to emphasise the flat speed of runners who race on this track. Like the Old Course, this circuit is testing and undulating, and the fences take plenty of jumping.

The weird and wonderful Cross Country course weaves in and out of the Old and New Courses. A wide variety of objects are jumped on the Cross Country course, which also features a smaller version of the famous Canal Turn on the Grand National course at Aintree.