For four days in March, the world watches on as our equine superstars, accompanied by some very skilled jockeys and prepared by the best trainers in the business do battle for some of the biggest prizes in jumps racing.
It’s Great Britain versus Ireland with occasional raiders of other nationalities throwing their hats in the ring. But it’s more than just national pride that’s at stake.
It’s about a place in sporting history and it’s a chance when the small stable might just have that one horse that can topple the might and clout of the big hitters.
Here is Planet Sport’s essential guide to the stuff you should know about the 2025 Cheltenham Festival, so you can sound like an expert.
The 2025 Festival takes place from Tuesday March 11 to Friday March 14 inclusive.
There are 13 Grade 1 races crammed into four days of racing and traditionally Tuesday is Champion Day, Wednesday is Ladies Day now renamed Style Wednesday, Thursday is St Patrick’s Thursday and Friday is Gold Cup Day.
During the four-day Festival, and barring some terrible weather, the first race will always start at 13:20 and the last race goes off at 17:20, with the feature races of each day at 1600.
This is a change to previous years of a 1330 start and a 1730 finish, with the feature at 1530. So don’t blame us if you rock up to the first race ten minutes late, you have been warned.
But be aware these are rough times, as horses don’t own wrist watches and don’t tend to like lining up in order on time. So you still might have a bit more time to get your bets on. Thoroughbreds, eh!
The Festival is staged on a quite breathtaking expanse of land called Prestbury Park, overlooked by Cleeve Hill, the gateway to the Cotswolds.
It’s just a mile or so north of the spa town that is Cheltenham and is positioned right beside the A435.
From the moment you walk in on day one at Cheltenham, the feel of the place makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand to attention.
You only have to glance at the magnificent natural amphitheatre that is Prestbury Park to conjure up endless replays of great races, fabulous finishes, desperate defeats, in the mind.
It all starts traditionally at around 13.30pm on Tuesday with the ‘Cheltenham Roar’.
As soon as the racecourse commentator announces “They’re coming into line for the Supreme” the spectators cannot hold their delight any longer. As the tapes go up, the runners head up towards the stands for the first time to a tumultuous roar.
This year there’s some change on and off the track that you’ll have to get used as the Cheltenham Festival aims to deliver more competitive action, increased value for money and a better racecourse experience.
Most importantly are the race running times, which have been shifted from 1.20pm to 5.20pm, with the feature race now at 4pm.
The Grade One Turners Novices’ Chase has been scraped in favour of a Grade Two novices handicap, the National Hunt Chase is now a novice handicap open to professional jockeys and The Cross Country Chase is now a limited handicap.
Among other changes include various ticket discounts and accommodation offers, but a pint of Guinness will rise in by price 30p to £7.80. So that’s not great.
Let’s have a look at some of the big races. Even if you are not a horse racing expert you are bound to have heard of some of these.
You can also check out all the ante-post markets ahead of the meeting by visiting Planet Sport Bet.
(Please note the horses have not been declared for the races yet, and are subject to change)
Day Four – Friday, March 14, 16:00 GMT
The biggest race of the lot, crowning the champion staying chaser and always the feature on the final day of the card. It can be a gruelling test for both horse and rider.
Some of the greatest jumps horses of all time have lifted this prize, including five-time champion Golden Miller and triple champions Arkle and Best Mate.
The current Gold Cup holder is Galopin Des Champs, who will be back to defend his title and potentially collect his third crown.
Who could win the Cheltenham Gold Cup: Galopin Des Champs is the current massive ante-post favourite, with Banbridge and Fact To File next in the market.
Check out the latest Gold Cup ante-post odds
Day One – Tuesday, March 11, 16:00 GMT
The feature race on day one and the championship for the speedsters, the two-mile hurdlers. Hatton’s Grace, Sir Ken, Persian War, See You Then and Istabraq all won this three times each.
Nicky Henderson’s star Constitution Hill missed last year’s Cheltenham Festival but is back to try and regain his crown.
Who could win the Champion Hurdle: Constitution Hill is odds-on favourite, Brighterdaysahead, Lossiemouth and State Man are next best.
Check out the latest Champion Hurdle ante-post odds
Day Two – Wednesday, March 12, 16:00 GMT
Wednesday each year sees the fastest chasers on four legs go to post for the two-mile championship over the larger obstacles.
The race is named in honour of the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, who was a wonderful supporter of National Hunt racing.
This race has produced some of the most epic performances ever seen at the Festival, the likes of Master Minded, Moscow Flyer before him, and more recently the brilliant Sprinter Sacre and fellow dual winner Altior.
Energumene won it in 2022 and 2023, and is back again after injury denied him the chance of a hat-trick in 2024, soft ground would be a benefit to the 11-year-old.
Who could win the Champion Chase: Energumene’s big rival Jonbon leads the market, with Gaelic Warrior and Il Est Francais also at the top end of the odds
Check out the latest Queen Mother Champion Chase ante-post odds
Day Three – Thursday, March 13, 15:20 GMT
A relatively new race to the Festival, this championship for the ‘in-betweeners’, those whose optimum racing distance is at around two-and-a-half miles, was inaugurated in 2005.
Only two horses, Albertas Run and Allaho have proved good enough to win the race twice. Other memorable winners have been Cue Card, Vautour and Frodon.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s Protektorat won 2024’s Ryanair Chase and is again in the running to double up, though previous winner Envoi Allen is also still in the hunt.
Who could win the Ryanair Chase: An open race with Fact To File, Il Est Francais and Gaelic Warrior the early favourites.
Day Three – Thursday, March 13, 16:00 GMT
While this was on the calendar from the Festival’s early days, it has twice been dropped from the meeting for spells, before being rekindled.
There’s no doubt that the race has taken on greater prominence since the Festival expanded to four days.
Notable winners since the dawn of the 21st Century include dual French-trained scorer Baracouda, Inglis Driver, who also won it twice, and the impressive Big Buck’s who won four successive runnings from 2009-2012.
Teahupoo returns to defend his crown and is the evens favourite.
Who could win the Stayers’ Hurdle: Teahupoo leads the market, with Home By The Lee and Lucky Place jostling for position in the market.
Check out Stayers’ Hurdle ante-post odds
Day One – Tuesday, March 11
13:20 – Supreme Novices’ Hurdle (Grade 1)
14:00 – Arkle Novices’ Chase (Grade 1)
14:40 – The Ultima Handicap Steeplechase (Premier Handicap)
15:20 – Mares’ Hurdle (Grade 1)
16:00 – Champion Hurdle (Grade 1)
16:40 – Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle (Premier Handicap)
17:20 – National Hunt Novices’ Chase (Novices’ Handicap)
Day Two – Wednesday, March 12
13:20 – Turners Novices’ Hurdle Race (Grade 1)
14:00 – Brown Advisory Novices’ Steeple Chase
14:40 – Coral Cup Hurdle (Premier Handicap)
15:20 – Glenfarclas Cross Country Steeple Chase
16:00 – Queen Mother Champion Steeple Chase (Grade 1)
16:40 – Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Handicap (Premier Handicap)
17:20 – Weatherbys Champion Bumper (Grade 1)
Day Three – Thursday, March 13
13:20 – Ryanair Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle (Grade 2)
14:00 – Jack Richards Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase
14:40 – Pertemps Network Final (Listed) (Premier Handicap)
15:20 – Ryanair Steeple Chase (Grade 1)
16:00 – Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle (Grade 1)
16:40 – TrustATrader Plate (Premier Handicap)
17:20 – Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup Handicap
Day Four – Friday, March 14
13:20 – JCB Triumph Hurdle (Grade 1)
14:00 – William Hill County Handicap Hurdle Race (Premier Handicap)
14:40 – Mrs Paddy Power Mares’ Steeple Chase (Grade 2)
15:20 – Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle Race (Grade 1)
16:00 – Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup Steeple Chase (Grade 1)
16:40 – St. James’s Place Festival Hunters Chase
17:20 – Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle
For those staying at home in the UK, ITV will show the first six races every day of the 2025 Cheltenham Festival, an increase on the five from the previous year. So they won’t be dashing off to show another ‘vital’ episode of Tipping Point for a change.
Racing TV will show all seven races from every day of the Festival, which you’ll find on your tv subscription provider, such as Sky or Virgin, or via online streaming. In Ireland viewers will need to be on Virgin Media One.
Depending on who you place your bets with, several bookmakers will be live streaming the races, as well as offering in-race betting via their apps or online.
If you want to attend the 2025 Cheltenham Festival, you’ll have to move quickly to sort out your ticket and accommodation.
Tickets are available through the Jockey Club website. Single or multi-day tickets, hospitality packages and group bookings are all on offer.
Prices range from £50 to well over £100, depending on the package you select and the stand to choose to watch the racing from.
There have been many great trainers throughout the history of the Cheltenham Festival.
Here is the pick of the current crop.
The master of Closutton has become a Cheltenham phenomenon. A record 103 winners have been sent out from Willie Mullins’ County Carlaw yard, breaking over the 100 threshold in 2024.
Mullins waited a long time to saddle his first Gold Cup winner but, like the proverbial London bus, once he did so, he struck again immediately with 2019 and 2020 winner Al Boum Photo. He landed it again in 2023 and 2024 with Galopin Des Champs.
He’s also won five Champion Hurdles, five Ryanair Chases, six Arkle Trophies, two Stayers’ Hurdles, seven Supreme Novices’ Hurdles, 10 Mares’ Hurdles, two Queen Mother Champion Chases and much more.
Anything saddled by this man across the four days of the Festival merits the closest of scrutiny.
Mullins was leading trainer at the 2024 Cheltenham Festival saddling nine winners with a further 12 runners finishing in the first three.
Nicky Henderson began training in 1978 and has now trained an incredible 73 Cheltenham Festival winners.
Of those, Long Run (2011) and Bobs Worth (2013) won the Gold Cup, while See You Then won the Champion Hurdle in 1985, ’86 and ’87.
There have been other brilliant performers at the Festival for the British trainer too, in the shape of dual Champion Chase winners Sprinter Sacre and another who landed the two-mile championship, Remittance Man.
Constitution Hill won the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle in 2022 and the Champion Hurdle in 2023, and will be back from and injury-hit in 2024 to potentially be the star of the show in 2025.
Henderson drew a blank in 2024, for the first time since 2008, but that was mainly down to a virus that swept through his yard and put most of his top horses out of action.
Along with Henderson, Paul Nicholls has set the standard at Cheltenham for British trainers and these is no doubting his status as one of the greats.
The Ditcheat maestro was responsible for two modern greats in Kauto Star, the first horse to regain the Cheltenham Gold Cup (2007, 2009) and Denman, who won the race in 2008 and was runner-up on three further occasions.
A total of 49 Festival winners have been sent out from his yard, six of them successful in the Champion Chase, including spectacular dual winner Master Minded (2008, 2009).
He also won four successive Stayers’ Hurdles with Big Buck’s (2009-2012) and he has a Champion Hurdle and three Ryanair Chases on his CV.
After Nicholls drew a blank in 2021 and 2022, he finally got back to winning ways in 2023 with Stage Star and Stay Away Fay bringing home Grade 1 glory.
Monmiral was his only winner at the 2024 Cheltenham Festival in the Pertemps Network Final.
One man who could seriously challenge Mullins and Henderson at the top of the Cheltenham tree is Irish trainer Gordon Elliott.
He was born in the year that Henderson took out a licence but has wasted no time in winning just about every big pot you can think of.
Already on the 40-winner mark at the Cheltenham Festival, Elliott saddled 2016 Gold Cup winner Don Cossack and also Tiger Roll, who has won five Festival races in addition to his two Grand Nationals.
He picked up three winners in 2024, including his star Teahupoo winning the Stayers’ Hurdle.
Henry De Bromhead did not train his first Festival winner until 2010 but has now chalked up 23 of them from his base at Knockeen, County Waterford.
Four of those have come in the Queen Mother Champion Chase through Sizing Europe (2011), Special Tiara (2017), Put The Kettle On (2021) and Captain Guinness (2024).
The 52-year-old trainer also saddled a Champion Hurdle-Gold Cup double in 2021, with Honeysuckle winning the former and Minella Indo the latter.
He did it again in 2022 with Honeysuckle winning the Champion Hurdle again, and A Plus Tard lifting the Gold Cup.
Honeysuckle’s swansong in 2023 saw her land the Mares’ Hurdle, and Envoi Allen picked up De Bromhead second Grade 1 of that Cheltenham Festival.
In 2024, De Bromhead had two winners with Slade Steel taking the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and Captain Guinness victorious in a dramatic Queen Mother Champion Chase.
Dan Skelton only ‘graduated’ to winning Festival races as recently as 2019 and at the moment has 10 winners to his name.
Four of his ten winners were delivered in the unbelievably competitive County Handicap Hurdle, with Faivoir the last of those in 2023.
But it was in 2024 when the Alcester handler finally struck Grade 1 gold, with Grey Dawning winning the Turners Novices’ Chase and Sir Alex Ferguson’s Protektorat claiming the Ryanair Chase.
Skelton was second behind Mullins in the 2024 Cheltenham Festival leading trainers table with four wins and one runner-up.
While trainers rightly get huge recognition for preparing their horses to deliver on the big day, it’s the jockeys who really grab the limelight.
For somewhere between four and nine minutes, depending on the length of the race, these men and women get the best view in the house and have their names etched in racing history as Cheltenham Festival winners.
Here are some of the best ones to watch in 2025.
Paul Townend had to wait in the wings for a long time as second jockey to the incomparable Ruby Walsh at the Willie Mullins yard.
It’s no surprise then that, post-Ruby’s retirement, he has been firing in the winners, given such strong ammunition to sit on.
Now with 34 successes to his name, that number can only grow and grow, given that the 34-year-old has plenty of years left in the saddle.
Townend won the leading jockey at the 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024 Cheltenham Festivals with six winners, one more than his tally in 2023.
Last year’s big Cheltenham winners: Galopin Des Champs (Gold Cup – 2024) State Man (Champion Hurdle – 2024); Gaelic Warrior (Arkle – 2024); Lossiemouth (Mares’ Hurdle – 2024), Ballyburn (Gallagher Novices’ Hurdle – 2024), Absurde (County Handicap Hurdle – 2024)
Number one jockey at Paul Nicholls’ Ditcheat yard, Harry Cobden certainly has a wise head on young shoulders.
At just 26 years old, Cobden has already landed some big winners in National Hunt racing, including the King George VI Chase twice and guiding Politologue home in the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 2020.
In 2023, he broke his four-year Cheltenham Festival drought on Stage Star who won the Turners Novices’ Chase.
He took his Cheltenham winners’ tally to 5 with victory on Monmiral in the Pertemps Network Final in 2024.
Last year’s big Cheltenham winners: Monmiral (Pertemps Final – 2024)
Rachael Blackmore arrived with a bang at the 2019 Cheltenham Festival and has not looked back.
Her first Festival winner came in 2019 on A Plus Tard, going on to land her first Grade 1 at the meeting, when Minella Indo claimed the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle in the same year.
The 2020 Cheltenham Festival saw her guide Honeysuckle to success in the Mares’ Hurdle, and the partnership then stepped up to win the 2021 Champion Hurdle, making Blackmore the first female jockey to win hurdling’s blue riband.
In all, she rode an incredible six winners at the 2021 Festival, becoming the first woman to win the Ruby Walsh Trophy for leading jockey at the meeting.
Then in 2022 she went even better landing her first Gold Cup on A Plus Tard, and another Champion Hurdle on Honeysuckle.
Honeysuckle’s farewell came in 2023 and Blackmore steered her home in the Mares’ Hurdle, and then claimed the Ryanair Chase on Envoi Allen.
In 2024, Blackmore claimed her 15th and 16th Cheltenham Festival wins, with Slade Steel in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and Captain Guinness in the Queen Mother Champion Chase.
Last year’s big Cheltenham winners: Slade Steel (Supreme Novices’ Hurdle – 2024), Captain Guinness (Queen Mother Champion Chase – 2024)
Nico de Boinville is Nicky Henderson’s stable jockey and was top jockey at the 2019 Cheltenham Festival with three wins.
He rode Coneygree to Gold Cup glory in 2015, but it’s Altior who has provided him with the most success at Cheltenham; winning the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle on him in 2016, the Arkle in 2017 and the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 2018 and 2019.
He teamed up with Constitution Hill to land the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle (2022) and the Champion Hurdle in 2023.
He drew a blank in 2024 with Henderson’s yard struggling with a virus outbreak.
Last year’s big Cheltenham winners: None
Younger brother of trainer, Dan, Harry Skelton has ridden nine Cheltenham winners, including 2019 Queen Mother Champion Chase scorer Politologue, for Paul Nicholls.
A superb horseman, fabulous judge of pace and a real giver of confidence to his mounts as they approach their obstacles, whatever Dan achieves, Harry will be along for the ride.
Grey Dawning and Protektorat were his big Grade 1 winners in 2024.
Last year’s big Cheltenham winners: Protektorat (Ryanair Chase – 2024), Grey Dawning (Turners Novices’ Chase – 2024), Langer Dan (Coral Cup – 2024), Unexpected Party (Grand Annual Chase – 2024)
READ MORE: Nap of the Day – Today’s best free horse racing tips
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