CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL 2026 COUNTDOWN

Our countdown to the 2026 Cheltenham Festival starts right here …

With this year’s Festival just around the corner, we’ll give you a daily snapshot guide of all the latest Festival news and movers to quickly keep you up to date.

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2 DAYS TO GO Sunday 8th March

⭕ The famous Cheltenham hill will be even tougher this year after issues with wet ground prompted the decision to push the final flight closer to the home bend on both the Old and New courses.

The Racing Post’s Lee Mottershead reports that the final flight now remains between the final two fences – as it has been through the winter – creating an extended run-in of well over a furlong, putting the emphasis still further on stamina especially on the New Course.

Clerk of the course Jon Pullin told Mottershead: “We’ve been wet in the build-up to the festival and there is an area of ground that has sat particularly wet.

“It was difficult to find a position in what has become the normal festival area for the final flight, so we’ve taken the decision to move the flight on both courses to what has been their historic position through the season. That has enabled us to get a nice running line through to the back straight.”

📑 We know the final fields for what should be an incredibly competitive opening day of the meeting after Tuesday’s confirmations. Top-class mare Lossiemouth has finally being given the chance to run in the Unibet Champion Hurdle (4.00), in which she will be wearing cheekpieces for the first time.

Lossiemouth is unbeaten in three visits to the Cheltenham Festival, and is now favourite after supplanting market leader The New Lion, who is now second choice. Last year’s winner Golden Ace is also present in a field of nine along with Brigherdaysahead, who beat Lossiemouth in the Irish Champion Hurdle last time out.

➡️ Irish novice chaser Irish Panther will run in Wednesday’s Queen Mother Champion Chase rather than the Arkle after what Eddie Harty called “a lot of thought and a lot of prevarication”.

The joint-trainer told Racing TV’s Nick Luck: “He’s the age that should be going for the Champion. His jumping is good enough – if it’s not good enough for the Champion, it’s not good enough for the Arkle.

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3 DAYS TO GO Saturday 7th March

🩷 💚 Willie Mullins will rely solely on Gaelic Warrior in Friday’s Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup after Fact To File was not added to the contest in today’s confirmation stage.

With Galopin Des Champs ruled out, Mullins didn’t declare Grangeclare West, Nick Rockett, Spindleberry, Lecky Watson, I Am Maximus or Impaire Et Passe, leaving him with only the Irish Gold Cup runner up as a representative.

Here’s the latest Gold Cup betting with starsports.bet:

🏇 Gaelic Warrior: ?
🏇 Jango Baie: ?
🏇 The Jukebox Man: ?
🏇 Inothewayurthinkin: ?
🏇 Haiti Coleurs: ?

⚫️ ⚪️ Romeo Coolio will tackle three miles for the first time at next week’s Cheltenham Festival as Gordon Elliott has opted to run his unbeaten chaser in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase on Wednesday rather than the Arkle.

Romeo Coolio made it four from four over fences when beating Kargese in the Irish Arkle at the Dublin Racing Festival, but he is a winner over further and Gordon Elliot feels the trip will suit, telling the Racing Post’s David Jennings: ’It wasn’t an easy decision, but he’s a point-to-point winner and he hit the line hard in the Drinmore over two and a half miles, so it makes sense to go up in trip.’

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4 DAYS TO GO Friday 6th March

❌ Dual Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs will not run in next week’s Cheltenham Gold Cup after sustaining a setback.

The ten-year-old won the Blue Riband in 2023 and 2024 and finished runner-up to Inothewayurthinkin last year, but won’t atttempt to regain his crown next Friday.

Willie Mullins told the Sporting Life’s Dave Ord: “After working very well on Thursday morning, he wasn’t right on Friday morning and will miss the Gold Cup and the other spring festivals.”

At the time of writing, here’s the betting for the Gold Cup with starsports.bet:

🏇 Gaelic Warrior: 4/1
🏇 Fact To File: 9/2
🏇 Jango Baie: 9/2
🏇 The Jukebox Man: 9/2
🏇 Inothewayurthinkin: 13/2
🏇 Haiti Coleurs: 15/2

🏇 The last two winners of the Stayers’ Hurdle, Teahupoo and Bob Olinger, will go head to head once again this year. They are set to be joined by Honesty Policy, last seen finishing third in Ascot’s Long Walk Hurdle behind fellow JP McManus-owned ace Impose Toi, Dan Skelton’s Kabral Du Mathan, Emma Lavelle-trained Cleeve Hurdle winner Ma Shantou.

📑 The Festival looks set to start on good to soft ground, assisted by watering, according to the clerk of the Course, Jon Pullin. Pullin spoke on Sky Sports Racing recently and said: “We always aim to start the Festival with good to soft as the lead description and, with the weather we’ve got, it looks like we will be somewhere around that.”

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5 DAYS TO GO  Thursday 5th March

🏇 Mighty Park will contest Tuesday’s Skybet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle after connections opted not to confirm his entry for Wednesday’s Turners Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. The Willie Mullins trained wide margin Fairyhouse maiden hurdle winner is now 11/4 second favourite for the Festival opener with starsports.bet.

🏇 Harry Fry’s leading Skybet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle contender Idaho Sun has been ruled out of the Cheltenham Festival with a setback. The Formby novice hurdle winner was considered a strong each/way fancy by many before his withdrawal.

🏇 Clerk of the Course Jon Pullin told the Nick Luck Daily Podcast that consecutive days of dry weather meant officials were weighing up the possibility of watering the course by the weekend. Despite more than 220mm of rain since the start of the year, the forecast heading into the weekend was largely dry, and groundstaff are considering irrigation to both courses with a lack of major rain set to come.

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6 DAYS TO GO  Wednesday 4th March

🏇 Lossiemouth was left in the Champion Hurdle field as confirmations for the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival were revealed on Wednesday afternoon.

The Mares’ Hurdle winner is ? second favourite for Tuesday’s highlight but also has the option of defending her crown on Thursday at the festival.

🏇 A key decision for Day One of the 2026 Cheltenham Festival has been confirmed: Jagwar will contest the Ultima Handicap Chase.

👑 Latest Ultima Handicap Chase Betting with starsports.bet:

🐎 Jagwar – ?
🐎 Iroko – ?
🐎 Hanstands – ?
🐎 Myretown – ?
🐎 Hyland – ?

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7 DAYS TO GO  Tuesday 3rd March

🏇 Marine Nationale, last year’s Champion Chase winner, has been ruled out of a defence of his crown next week by trainer Barry Connell after he was found to have a sore neck on Tuesday morning. A leading contender for the race, his absence means that Majborough is now an even stronger favourite with starsports.bet for the Wednesday feature, although the record of favorites, especially odds-on chances, doesn’t make for punter-friendly reading.

👑 Latest Champion Chase Betting with starsports.bet:

🐎 Majborough: ?
🐎 L’eau Du Sud: ?
🐎 Il Etait Temps: ?
🐎 Quilixios: ?
🐎 Jonbon: ?

🏇 It’s a touch-and-go situation for trainer Emmet Mullins, with the shrewd operator hoping that McLaurey and J’Arrive De L’Est on the verge of making it into the Plate/Jack Richards Novice’ Handicap Chase or the Cross Country Chase. J’Arrive De L’Est’s rating may see him just miss the cut for the Cross Country due to the presence of Stumptown, and he could well run in the Midlands National that same week. Mullins also has Dublin Racing Festival winner Backmersackme, currently favourite for the Princess Royal National Hunt Chase Novices’ Handicap Chase.

🏇 Ryanair Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle contender Carrigmoornaspruce has new ownership in the shape of Shaikh Nasser bin Hamed Al Khalifa’s Victorious Racing. The syndicate merged with his brother Shaikh Khalid’s KHK Racing last year to form Victorious Forever, and hopes will be high given her strong form this season, including a runner-up finish in the Paddy Power Future Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown.

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