Classy, competitive Cheltenham festival begins Tuesday
The Cheltenham Festival gets underway Tuesday, featuring four days of the most prestigious jumps action of the year. The four days of racing feature 13 Grade 1 events across all divisions of national hunt racing. Race cards begin at 9:20 a.m. EDT each day of the meeting, with seven races each day.
The feature race of the festival is the Grade 1 Cheltenham Gold Cup, set to go Friday at noon EDT with 14 horses expected to start. The most prestigious steeplechase prize of the year, its US$839,900 purse also makes it the richest jump race of the season in Great Britain or Ireland other than the Grand National (G3) on April 11 at Aintree. The Cheltenham Gold Cup covers a taxing three miles and 2 1/2 furlongs, with 22 fences along the way, and is open to 5-year-olds and up who are sufficiently highly rated by the British Horseracing Authority.
Inothewayurthinkin, who upset 2023 and 2024 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Galopin des Champs in 2025, will try to match that rival's feat of winning the race twice in a row. As of Monday afternoon he is a 7-1 best price in overseas markets but the road won't be easy for this Gavin Cromwell trainee. He returned for this season for a well-beaten fifth in the John Durkan Memorial (G1) at Punchestown in November, ran ninth in the Savills Chase (G1) at Leopardstown and most recently fell in the Irish Gold Cup (G1) at Leopardstown on Feb. 2. The Irish Gold Cup was the race he used as a final prep last year, and though he didn't win that race, he at least showed progressive form compared to his dull form this campaign.
As of Monday afternoon, Gaelic Warrior is the favorite in overseas markets for the Cheltenham Gold Cup at a 4-1 best price. Gaelic Warrior is trained by Willie Mullins, best known stateside for training 2025 Breeders' Cup Turf winner Ethical Diamond. A dynamo of the jumps, Willie Mullins has won this race four times: with Al Boum Photo in 2019 and 2020 and then Galopin des Champs in 2023 and 2024. Galopin des Champs had been favored to regain his Gold Cup crown in 2026, and put up his last major work Thursday. However, he wasn't right on Friday and has been ruled out the rest of the season by Mullins, according to a report from Brian O'Connor of the Irish Times.
Gaelic Warrior has done well at the Cheltenham festival, winning the Novices' Chase (G1) there in 2024 and finishing runner-up in the 2023 Novices' Hurdle and the 2022 Juvenile Handicap Hurdle (G3). His three races leading into the Gold Cup have been productive, and he was most recently second in the Irish Gold Cup. The good to soft ground suits, as well.
However, he will have to face stiff competition. Just behind him in the market is Ben Pauling trainee The Jukebox Man, who beat Gaelic Warrior in the King George VI Chase (G1) on Dec. 26 and ran a strong second in the Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham in 2024 off a similar layoff. Jango Baie, trained by Nicky Henderson, is also taking strong interest. He was beaten only a half length by The Jukebox Man in the King George and also has back form at Cheltenham, having won the Novices' Hurdle last year.
The other player in the four-horse King George photo with The Jukebox Man, Jango Baie and Gaelic Warrior also lines up at Cheltenham, the Joseph O'Brien trained Banbridge. Winner of the King George in 2024 and second by a nose in 2025, he still has to prove he can run as well at Cheltenham as he can at Kempton. He didn't last year, as he was a well-beaten seventh in the Gold Cup. However, he can stand up to any of these on his better days, the ground should suit, and the 40-1 best price in overseas markets suggest he'll be a long enough shot to consider for value.
One of the most exciting races of the week, and a race that stands to have an impact on future editions of the Gold Cup for years to come, is the Novices' Chase (G1). That will be run as Wednesday's second race, going off at 10 a.m. EDT. The race covers three miles and a furlong, with 20 fences along the way, and is open to horses aged 5 and up who had not won a steeplechase before the beginning of the current season.
The red-hot horse, and the 9-2 best-price favorite in the overseas markets as of Monday afternoon, is Nicky Henderson trainee Romeo Coolio. A Grade 1 winner on the hurdle in December of 2024, he was third in the Novices' Hurdle (G1) at Cheltenham last year. He stepped up to chasing in October 2025 (early in the current jumps season, which runs from fall through spring), and the 7-year-old son of Kayf Tara is undefeated in four starts this year. That includes three straight Grade 1 novice races. The biggest question for Romeo Coolio is distance: he has not run past 2 1/2 miles since his debut in a three-mile maiden point-to-point in 2023. His last two races have been close calls, and he adds a hood for the first time, perhaps to help him calm down over this longer trip.
Willie Mullins's barn is always brimming with prospects and he trains six of the 16 entrants in the Novices' Chase. Best among his contingent are Kaid d'Authie, who won the Novice Chase (G1) at Leopardstown on Feb. 1 in confident fashion and Final Demand, who has tables to turn on his stablemate but won the Faugheen Novice Chase (G1) at Limerick in frontrunning style two starts back.