Key events
Greg Wood
4.00 CHELTENHAM GOLD CUP CHASE, GRADE ONE, 3M 2F 70YD
And so to the big one, and a race that could supply one of the best sporting stories of the year if The Jukebox Man carries Harry Redknapp’s colours to glory. The form is all there and it is time for punters to choose between the potential of horses like The Jukebox Man, Jango Baie and Gaelic Warrior as they step up to three-and-a-quarter miles, the proven stamina Haiti Couleurs, already successful in the National Hunt Chase here in March 2025 and the Welsh Grand National in December, and a returning champion in Inothewayurthinkin, an impressive winner 12 months ago but way below that form in the current campaign. Dan Skelton’s Grey Dawning, the winner of the two-and-a-half mile novice chase here in 2024 when it was still a Grade One, could also be in the mix if he can ditch his habit of making mistakes at a vital stage.
Key form:
G1 King George VI Chase, Kempton, 26 Dec 25 (The Jukebox Man, Jango Baie, Gaelic Warrior)
Welsh Grand National Handicap Chase, Chepstow, 27 Dec 25
G2 Cotswold Chase, Cheltenham, 24 Jan 26 (Grey Dawning, L’Homme Presse)
G1 Irish Gold Cup, Leopardstown, 2 Feb 26 (Gaelic Warrior)
Timeform Top-Rated: Gaelic Warrior.
Selection: The Jukebox Man.
Greg Wood
3.20 ALBERT BARTLETT NOVICE HURDLE, GRADE ONE, 2M 7F 213YD
A race where the best staying chasers of two or three years’ time often poke their heads above the parapet – The Jukebox Man, for instance, was touched off two years ago after jumping the last four lengths up – and there will surely be a Grade One-winning chaser or two somewhere in today’s bumper 22-runner field. It is not always the obvious form horses that come to the fore, however, and Minella Indo, the 2021 Gold Cup winner, was a 50-1 shot when he took this race two years earlier, while there have also been two 33-1 winners and two at 18-1 since 2018. The Irish challenge looks extremely strong for this year’s renewal, with Willie Mullins’s Doctor Steinberg sure to set off favourite to follow up his eight-length win in a Grade One at Leopardstown last time, and Thedeviluno, who was sent over to Doncaster to win the River Don Novice Hurdle in February, also prominent in the betting to give Paul Nolan a fifth festival winner. That pair takes out a fair chunk of the book, but The Passing Wife, from the Gavin Cromwell stable, was much-improved for a step up in trip last time, while Espresso Milan, who started out in bumpers for Fergal O’Brien before switching to Willie Mullins in spring 2025, also benefited from a stamina test at Thurles in January.
Key form:
G1 Novice Hurdle, Leopardstown, 2 Feb 26 (Doctor Steinberg)
G2 River Don Novice Hurdle, Doncaster, 24 Jan 26 (Thedeviluno)
Timeform Top-Rated: Doctor Steinberg.
Selection: Thedeviluno.
Greg Wood
2.00 COUNTY HANDICAP HURDLE, 2M 179YD
The festival’s two-mile handicap hurdle should, in theory at least, be a chance for some smaller or mid-sized stables to have a crack at a festival winner, but it is one of the more remarkable stats at the meeting that Peter Fahey’s Belfast Banter, in 2021, is the only County winner since 2014 that was not trained by either Dan Skelton or Willie Mullins. Mullins has saddled seven of those winners – and nine in the race overall – while Skelton has sent out four, including Superb Story, in 2016, who was the yard’s first festival winner. Mullins and Skelton three and two runners respectively today, including the top two in the market, Karbau and Sinnatra, with Paul Townend and Harry Skelton booked to ride. Mullins sends Absurde, last seen running into a creditable eighth place in the Melbourne Cup in November, as backup in a race he won two years ago, while Secret Squirrel, who has plenty of decent form in top handicaps without ever getting much luck, is another to consider carefully and has been popular in the betting this morning.
Selection: Secret Squirrel
2.40 MARES’ CHASE, GRADE TWO, 2M 4F
This race has been monopolised by Irish-trained runners since its arrival on the festival schedule in 2021, with Willie Mullins taking three runnings and Colm Murphy and Gavin Cromwell nabbing one apiece. The home team have a very credible contender this year, however, in Dan Skelton’s mare Panic Attack, who completed a rare double in two big handicap chases, at Cheltenham and Newbury, in the early months of the season and remains unbeaten this season after an easy win in a Listed event in January. She is only second-favourite for this race, though, as Mullins’s Dinoblue, the winner 12 months ago, is seeking a repeat success, while her stable-companion, Spindleberry, will be a live contender too if she is back to the form that saw her rack up a five-timer before being pulled up in the Irish Gold Cup last time. Ben Pauling’s Diva Luna is another British-trained runner with a chance, while Henry de Bromhead’s July Flower was a Grade Two winner here in November and ran third behind the useful Romeo Coolio when last seen in December.
Selection: Panic Attack.
Greg Wood
1.20 TRIUMPH HURDLE, GRADE ONE, 4YO, 2M 179YD
The traditional opening race on Gold Cup day has attracted a 20-runner field for the first time since 2012, and that is thanks mainly to a sterling effort by Willie Mullins, who was forced to rule out the ante-post favourite, Narciso Has, a couple of weeks ago but still saddles no fewer than nine runners as he attempts to land the juvenile hurdling championship for the fifth year in a row. The team leaders, according to the betting market at least, are Selma De Vary – a filly who finished runner-up behind Narciso Has in a Grade One at the Dublin Racing Festival – and Proactif, a big-money recruit to the JP McManus string who took a minor race at Fairyhouse on his stable debut in mid-January.
The favourite, though, is currently Gordon Elliott’s filly, Highland Crystal, unbeaten in three including a narrow defeat of Saratoga, Tuesday’s Fred Winter winner, in February. Irish stables have won the last seven runnings of this contest, but the Brits are putting up a much better show all round at this year’s festival and Minella Study, a comfortable winner over course and distance in December, goes to post with a live chance to give his young trainer, Adam Nicol, a dream debut at the meeting. He beat the Fred Winter runner-up last time out and his track experience is a big plus, a comment that also applies to Dan Skelton’s Maestro Conti after his win here on Trials day.
Key form:
Triumph Trial Juvenile Hurdle, Cheltenham, 13 Dec 25 (Minella Study, One Horse Town)
G2 Juvenile Hurdle, Leopardstown, 26 Dec 25 (North Shore)
Juvenile Hurdle, Fairyhouse, 14 Jan 26, 2m (Proactif)
G2 Triumph Hurdle Trial Juvenile Hurdle Trial, Cheltenham, 24 Jan 26 (Maestro Conti, One Horse Town)
G1 Juvenile Hurdle, Leopardstown, 2 Feb 26, (Selma De Vary)
Timeform Top-Rated: Minella Study.
Selection: Minella Study.
Here’s Greg Wood on the Gold Cup and much more as the festival draws to a close:
Some early market movers for you:
Another non-runner due to the ground, confirmed by the Jockey Club: Hamlet’s Night is out of the William Hill County Handicap Hurdle (2.00). The going for today is good to soft, soft in places on the chase course, and soft, good to soft in places on the hurdle course.
The Jockey Club statement also includes a rainfall update: “There has been 240mm of rain since 1 January. There was 12mm in total yesterday (2mm during the afternoon and then 10mm overnight). The course was last watered on Wednesday night.”
Spillane’s Tower out of the Gold Cup
News: despite the 10mm rain overnight and the official going being good to soft, soft in places, the trainer Jimmy Mangan has decided there’s not enough juice in the ground for his horse Spillane’s Tower to run. Yesterday another Irish handler Willie Mullins pulled Fact To File out of the big race as he considered the ground at Cheltenham hadn’t got enough ease in it.
Preamble
Greg Wood
Good morning from Cheltenham on the final day of the 2026 festival meeting, on what could be one of the most memorable days here for many a year if Harry Redknapp’s unbeaten chaser, The Jukebox Man, could give his popular and high-profile owner the win in the chasing’s championship race: the Gold Cup.
The Jukebox Man is one of three horses that were involved in a blanket finish to the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day – Jango Baie and Gaelic Warrior are the others – that are currently vying for favouritism for the day’s feature race. After plenty of rain overnight, meanwhile, support is also beginning to develop behind Haiti Couleurs, the Welsh Grand National winner, whose stamina is guaranteed.
Jon Pullin, the clerk of the course, reported this morning that the going at Cheltenham is now good-to-soft, soft in places on the chase track, after 10mm of rain overnight, and it is soft, good-to-soft in places on the hurdles course.
Pullin was also a guest on ITV Racing’s The Opening Show programme this morning, responding to criticism of the ground on Thursday by Willie Mullins, the most successful trainer in festival history. Mullins suggested that the track had not put on enough water earlier in the week after scratching Fact To File, the favourite and defending champion, from Thursday’s Ryanair Chase.
“It was disappointing for everyone that Fact To File didn’t run, Pullin said. “As far as the ground was concerned, it was good, good-to-soft in places, and we did 4mm of irrigation on Wednesday night into Thursday. It was safe ground as we wanted and we always knew we were going to get the rain we got last night.”
A subplot on today’s card, meanwhile, is that the Prestbury Cup is still in the balance, for the first time in a decade, with Ireland on 11 wins and the home team having notched 10.
The Irish have blitzed through the Friday card several times in the past, however, and Paddy Power still make the visitors a 1-6 chance to end the week in front, while a 14-14 tie is a 5-1 shot and the hosts are 9-1.
The action on what is now the second-biggest betting day of the year behind the Grand National will be off and running at 1.20pm GMT with the Triumph Hurdle, where Adam Nicol’s Minella Study, trained on the beach in the north-east of England, will look to get the British bandwagon rolling. And, as ever, every snippet of news worth knowing, plus results, gambles and more, will be here on the blog as the day unfolds.