Cheltenham Festival 2026: Essential Guide To Jump Racing's Big Week
12 March 2018
By.
Cornelius Lysaght
BBC horse racing reporter
Cheltenham Festival
Venue: Cheltenham Racecourse Date: 13-16 March
Coverage: Full coverage on BBC Radio 5 live; advanced BBC Radio 5 live sports additional; live text updates on BBC Sport website
It's upon us: the Cheltenham Festival, the most crucial week of the jump racing year when most of the finest national hunt horses do fight for championship honours.
These days, however, the Festival is no longer just a significant horse racing occasion; it has actually secured its own increasingly substantial position in the British sporting calendar as a whole.
One illustration: I am commemorating my 35th anniversary of working there. Back in 1983 trainer Michael Dickinson pulled off what was thought about a hardly credible 1-2-3-4-5 in the Gold Cup - the order's an excellent one for particular club quizzes, so here goes: Bregawn, Captain John, Wayward Lad, Silver Buck and Ashley House - and, that year, the average participation was just about 24,000 per afternoon over three days.
In 2018, the 14th Festival set up to be staged over four days, that average will be more than 60,000 people. Additionally, the quantity of airtime offered over by radio and TV, plus the area for editorial and promotions online and in papers, has actually outgrown all recognition.
Perhaps the most significant single change from 1983 is the amount of success for Irish stables. Then it was five wins from 18 races, although that figure wasn't equalled for ten years, and in 1989 the visitors sustained 'nil points'. Today, hopes of an improvement on 2017's success in the BetBright Anglo-Irish challenge, with a record 19 wins from 28 races, is considered practical.
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Cheltenham race schedule & BBC coverage
Here's my guide to the week ahead ...
First things initially: the weather condition
It is typically said that due to the fact that of its position nestling in the foothills of the Cotswold Hills, the health club town of Cheltenham has its own micro climate.
That might sometimes hold true, however it didn't apply when the 'Beast from the East' and Storm Emma had their recent encounter in Britain; as somewhere else, snow drifts collected, some five-feet deep around the fences and hurdles, and temperature levels at one point plunged to -17 C.
It's estimated 500 tonnes of snow needed to be cleared from the track and public locations combined, and the results of that precipitation, plus more rain, suggests the Festival is set to start on the softest racing surface seen for day one in more than 25 years.
The storm from Ireland: Willie Mullins and look stronger than ever
Willie Mullins is the champ fitness instructor of Irish jump racing, while his arch-rival Gordon Elliott was the titleholder at the 2017 Cheltenham Festival for the very first time, with six of his home nation's successes. Between them, the pair have 15 of the 19 Irish-trained likely favourites this time.
The Elliott team - many with jockeys wearing the maroon and white silks of the Gigginstown House Stud operation, owned by airline tycoon Michael O'Leary - includes Gigginstown's Samcro, who appears at arrivals with the thickest cloud of buzz.
The horse was intentionally called Samcro by his breeder - after the Sons Of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original from the US tv series Sons of Anarchy - in an effort to bring in O'Leary, who is stated to like names with powerful connotations.
Unbeaten in seven races, including a point-to-point, Samcro is an Irish 'banker' in day 2's Ballymore Novices Hurdle as he heads the list of Elliott runners along with Apple's Jade - trained by Mullins prior to a prominent fallout with O'Leary in 2016 - who chooses a repeat in the OLGB Mares Hurdle (the first day).
Meanwhile, Mullins has something of a 'banker' of his own in Getabird, all the rage for the Sky Bet Supreme Novices Hurdle, the opening race of the whole week, the minute when that famous 'Cheltenham holler' goes up from the crowd as months of anticipation lastly comes to an end.
Like a majority of the stable's most significant hopes, Getabird will be the mount of Ruby Walsh, the Festival's most effective jockey with 56 wins, and leading rider for 11 of the last 14 years; he's just back from an absence of more than 3 months due to the fact that of a broken best leg.
The Mullins obstacle likewise includes 3 high-profile runners aiming to regain their mojos: Faugheen, Yorkhill (both Unibet Champion Hurdle) and Douvan (Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase).
Faugheen, the injury-ravaged Champion Hurdler of 2015, has suffered two recent beats and will use cheek pieces to aid concentration; Yorkhill, last season's JLT Chase winner, has rather lost his method; while Douvan, twice a Celebration winner, will be racing for the very first time because flopping in the 2017 Champion Chase, when encountering Altior in the race this time or lining up in the Ryanair Chase.
Altior just one star in Henderson difficulty
Just as Messrs Elliott and Mullins dominate the Irish attack, the stable of Nicky Henderson, based at Lambourn in Berkshire, has a bulk of the foot soldiers manning the home defences.
Henderson, who's won more Festival races than any other trainer - 58 - has the significant gamers in three of the week's 4 primary functions, and is fancied to complete what would be an unprecedented treble.
Buveur D'Air, owned by JP McManus, looks outstanding as he protects his Champion Hurdle title, although Henderson and McManus are also represented by serial runner-up in the race My Tent Or Yours; Altior and jockey Nico de Boinville seek their 3rd Festival successes together in the Queen Mother Champion Chase; while Might Bite and de Boinville attempt to sign up with an elite band who have actually won leaping's King George VI Chase and Timico-sponsored Gold Cup in the very same season.
To blend metaphors, Might Bite, owned by the Knot Again Partnership headed by Kent County Cricket Club chairman Simon Philip, is a fantastic all-rounder, although is susceptible to near run-outs.
The nine-year-old has twice nearly got defeat from the jaws of victory when diverting off a straight line late on at Cheltenham, especially in the RSA Chase of 2017; were these antics guaranteed not to be duplicated, his big-race chances would be substantially shorter as he takes on Native River, Our Duke and co. - although not last year's winner Sizing John, who is injured.
Talking of the Gold Cup, here's a stat for you: Willie Mullins, who is due to run in 2015's 4th Djakadam, Total Recall and the well-touted Killultagh Vic, has actually never ever won the race, and has - quite extraordinarily - had horses finish runner-up 6 times consisting of Djakadam twice.
Day 3: move over St Patrick, the people's horses remain in town
They call it St Patrick's Thursday, however, not least since it's on 15 March, day three might almost be re-named 'old heroes' Thursday this year as Cue Card and The New One strut their stuff at their seventh Festival.
For Cue Card, a two-time Festival winner - although perhaps best-known for falling at the third-last fence in the last two Gold Cups - his appearance in the Ryanair Chase is most likely to be his swansong at the fixture.
The jump racing public has actually taken the 12-year-old to their hearts for his success in landing an overall of 16 races, of course, however likewise for his capacity to recuperate in the face of hardship, like the falls.
Success for the veteran, trained by Colin Tizzard for octogenarian owner Jean Bishop, and the mount of jockey Paddy Brennan, against safeguarding champ Un Des Sceaux and the rest would, as they state, raise the roof.
Unlike Cue Card, who missed a couple of years, the Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained The New One, who lines up with the fitness instructor's jockey son Sam in the Sunbets Stayers Hurdle, has not missed out on a Celebration given that taking in his very first in 2012; his CV consists of a newbies' obstacle success and form figures of 3-5-4-5 in succeeding Champion Hurdles.
Any other service
Britain's youngest trainer Amy Murphy, 26, does not have ammo to equate to some of her competitors, however she does have up-and-coming hurdler Kalashnikov, among the favourites for the Supreme Novices Hurdle (the first day).
Rising-star jockey Bryony Frost is due to renew her prolific collaboration with Black Corton in the RSA Chase (day 2).
Some bookies' price quotes of how much will be bet during the Festival seem a bit wild, and ₤ 350m is most likely a sensible call: the bookies appear to the majority of fear Footpad, well-backed for the Racing Post Arkle Trophy (day one).
Champion racehorse-turned-stallion Frankel has his first runner at the Cheltenham Festival when the Dan Skelton-trained Solo Saxophone lines up in the Fred Winter Juvenile Hurdle (day 2).
In a year dominated by the larger names, owners Caron and Paul Chapman, trainer Jedd O'Keeffe and jockey Joe Colliver fly the flag for those with a lower-profile, with Sam Spinner in the Stayers Hurdle (day 3).
Sam Spinner and Gold Cup hope Definitly Red (named by a bad speller, apparently), both Yorkshire-trained, look for to continue the recent revival of dive racing's northern circuit.
And finally...109-year-old racing fan Ralph Hoare finally gets the possibility to tick the Cheltenham Festival off his pail list of things to do when he attends Gold Cup day.
Coverage on BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio live sports extra and the BBC Sport website all week.
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