Cheltenham 2025 Tips, Odds and News

The eyes of the sporting world will be fixed firmly on Gloucestershire during the middle week of March, as the sport's finest National Hunt horses take part in the 2025 Cheltenham Festival.

28 fantastic races will take place during this four-day event, which begins on Tuesday 11th March. Each card is headlined by a Grade One Championship race, which is surrounded by Grade Ones and top handicaps. Races like the Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase and the Stayers' Hurdle take place earlier in the week, with the Cheltenham Gold Cup headlining the fourth and final day at Jumps Racing HQ.

Constitution Hill makes his triumphant return to the Cheltenham Festival to try and win back his Champion Hurdle crown, but will face stiff competition from top mares Brighterdaysahead and Lossiemouth. Kopek Des Bordes and Majborough will carry short prices into the Supreme and the Arkle. Day one attendees will also enjoy the Mares' Hurdle, along with the Ultima, the Fred Winter and the National Hunt Chase.

Jonbon will look to put his Cheltenham Festival hoodoo behind him as he takes on the best that Willie Mullins has to offer in the feature on day two. Ballyburn will bid for his second Cheltenham win in the Brown Advisory Novices' Chase. Wednesday's viewers will also enjoy the Grade One Turners Novices' Hurdle, the Champion Bumper and a couple of interesting handicaps.

Gordon Elliott's Teahupoo ran out an excellent winner of the Stayers' Hurdle in 2024 and he's a short price to make it two Cheltenham Festival wins in a row this year. The Mares' Novices' Hurdle will now open the action on day three. Racing fans will then enjoy a trio of handicaps over fences, the Pertemps Final Handicap Hurdle and a wide-open renewal of the Ryanair Chase.

Galopin Des Champs has run out an impressive winner of the Gold Cup the last two years and Willie Mullins' star could establish himself as an all-time great if he can complete a famous hat-trick in 2025. Nicky Henderson's Lulamba is fancied to win the card-opening Triumph Hurdle. Friday's attendees will also take in the Albert Bartlett, the Mares' Chase, the Hunter Chase and two lucrative handicap hurdles.

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.

At the 2021 Cheltenham Festival, a Grade Two Mares’ Chase will be introduced to the day two schedule. There’s currently been no confirmation as to which race will be taken out, but it’s thought that the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle will be the one to make way for this feature chase for mares.