Cheltenham Festival 2026: Essential Guide To Jump Racing's Big Week
12 March 2018
By.
Cornelius Lysaght
BBC horse racing correspondent
Cheltenham Festival
Venue: Cheltenham Racecourse Date: 13-16 March
Coverage: Full protection on BBC Radio 5 live; continued on 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 very best nationwide hunt horses do battle for champion honours.
These days, however, the Festival is no longer just a major horse racing event; it has actually secured its own significantly significant position in the British sporting calendar as a whole.
One illustration: I am celebrating my 35th anniversary of working there. Back in 1983 fitness instructor Michael Dickinson managed what was thought about a hardly trustworthy 1-2-3-4-5 in the Gold Cup - the order's an excellent one for specific bar quizzes, so here goes: Bregawn, Captain John, Wayward Lad, Silver Buck and Ashley House - and, that year, the average presence was just about 24,000 per afternoon over three days.
In 2018, the 14th Festival set up to be staged over 4 days, that average will be more than 60,000 people. Additionally, the quantity of airtime provided over by radio and TV, plus the area for editorial and promotions on-line and in papers, has actually outgrown all acknowledgment.
Perhaps the biggest single modification from 1983 is the amount of success for Irish stables. Then it was 5 wins from 18 races, although that figure wasn't equated to for 10 years, and in 1989 the visitors withstood '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 thought about reasonable.
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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 spa town of Cheltenham has its own micro environment.
That may sometimes be the case, 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 areas combined, and the impacts of that rainfall, plus further rain, indicates the Festival is set to begin on the softest racing surface area seen for the first day in more than 25 years.
The storm from Ireland: Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott look more powerful than ever
Willie Mullins is the champ trainer of Irish jump racing, while his arch-rival Gordon Elliott was the titleholder at the 2017 Cheltenham Festival for the first time, with 6 of his home nation's successes. Between them, the pair have 15 of the 19 Irish-trained most likely favourites this time.
The Elliott team - numerous with jockeys using the maroon and white silks of the Gigginstown House Stud operation, owned by airline company tycoon Michael O'Leary - includes Gigginstown's Samcro, who appears at arrivals with the thickest cloud of hype.
The horse was deliberately called Samcro by his breeder - after the Sons Of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original from the US television series Sons of Anarchy - in an effort to draw in O'Leary, who is stated to like names with powerful undertones.
Unbeaten in 7 races, including a point-to-point, Samcro is an Irish 'lender' in day 2's Ballymore Novices Hurdle as he heads the list of Elliott runners together with Apple's Jade - trained by Mullins prior to a high-profile fallout with O'Leary in 2016 - who goes for a repeat in the OLGB Mares Hurdle (day one).
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 entire week, the moment when that well-known 'Cheltenham holler' increases from the crowd as months of anticipation lastly comes to an end.
Like a bulk of the stable's biggest hopes, Getabird will be the install of Ruby Walsh, the Festival's most effective jockey with 56 wins, and leading rider for 11 of the last 14 years; he's simply back from an absence of more than 3 months because of a broken best leg.
The Mullins difficulty also consists of three high-profile runners aiming to restore their mojos: Faugheen, Yorkhill (both Unibet Champion Hurdle) and Douvan (Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase).
Faugheen, the injury-ravaged Champion Hurdler of 2015, has actually suffered 2 recent beats and will use cheek pieces to help concentration; Yorkhill, last season's JLT Chase winner, has rather lost his way; while Douvan, two times a Festival winner, will be racing for the very first time since tumbling in the 2017 Champion Chase, when encountering Altior in the race this time or lining up in the Ryanair Chase.
Altior simply one star in Henderson difficulty
Just as Messrs Elliott and Mullins control the Irish attack, the stable of Nicky Henderson, based at Lambourn in Berkshire, has a majority of the foot soldiers manning the home defences.
Henderson, who's won more Festival races than any other fitness instructor - 58 - has the significant players in 3 of the week's four primary functions, and is fancied to complete what would be an extraordinary treble.
Buveur D'Air, owned by JP McManus, looks impressive as he protects his Champion Hurdle title, although Henderson and McManus are likewise 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 join an elite band who have actually won leaping's King George VI Chase and Timico-sponsored Gold Cup in the very same season.
To mix metaphors, Might Bite, owned by the Knot Again Partnership headed by Kent County Cricket Club chairman Simon Philip, is an excellent all-rounder, although is prone to near run-outs.
The nine-year-old has twice almost grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory when veering off a straight line late on at Cheltenham, notably in the RSA Chase of 2017; were these shenanigans ensured not to be repeated, his big-race odds would be significantly shorter as he takes on Native River, Our Duke and co. - although not in 2015's winner Sizing John, who is injured.
Broaching the Gold Cup, here's a stat for you: Willie Mullins, who is due to run last year's 4th Djakadam, Total Recall and the well-touted Killultagh Vic, has actually never won the race, and has - quite extraordinarily - had horses complete runner-up six times consisting of Djakadam two times.
Day 3: relocation over St Patrick, individuals's horses remain in town
They call it St Patrick's Thursday, however, not least because it's on 15 March, day 3 could practically 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 possibly best-known for falling at the third-last fence in the last two Gold Cups - his look in the Ryanair Chase is likely to be his swansong at the component.
The dive racing public has taken the 12-year-old to their hearts for his success in landing a total of 16 races, naturally, but likewise for his capability to recuperate in the face of difficulty, like the falls.
Success for the veteran, trained by Colin Tizzard for octogenarian owner Jean Bishop, and the install of jockey Paddy Brennan, against defending champion Un Des Sceaux and the rest would, as they say, raise the roofing system.
Unlike Cue Card, who missed out on a couple of years, the Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained The New One, who lines up with the trainer's jockey boy Sam in the Sunbets Stayers Hurdle, has not missed a Celebration since taking in his first in 2012; his CV includes an amateurs' hurdle success and type figures of 3-5-4-5 in succeeding Champion Hurdles.
Any other organization
Britain's youngest trainer Amy Murphy, 26, does not have ammunition to equate to some of her competitors, but she does have up-and-coming hurdler Kalashnikov, one of the favourites for the Hurdle (the first day).
Rising-star jockey Bryony Frost is because of renew her prolific collaboration with Black Corton in the RSA Chase (day 2).
Some bookmakers' estimates of just how much will be wagered during the Festival appear a bit wild, and ₤ 350m is probably an affordable call: the bookmakers appear to the majority of fear Footpad, well-backed for the Racing Post Arkle Trophy (day one).
Champion racehorse-turned-stallion Frankel has his very 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 controlled by the larger names, owners Caron and Paul Chapman, fitness instructor 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 (called by a bad speller, apparently), both Yorkshire-trained, look for to continue the recent revival of jump racing's northern circuit.
And finally...109-year-old racing fan Ralph Hoare finally gets the possibility to tick the Cheltenham Festival off his bucket list of things to do when he participates in Gold Cup day.
Coverage on BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio live sports additional and the BBC Sport website all week.
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