The National Hunt season begins in earnest this weekend and here’s four ante-post punts for the 2026 Cheltenham Festival
Cheltenham hosts its first meeting of the season this weekend with the two-day William Hill Showcase meeting.
The return to racing at Cheltenham comes as the National Hunt season gets set to ramp up over the coming weeks and will have racing fans already thinking about the Festival next March. Organisers have announced a number of changes to next year’s event and it will be interesting to see what effect, if any, they have on falling attendances.
There has also been talk of moving the famous meeting to run from Wednesday to Saturday rather than the traditional Tuesday to Friday, but that is “nowhere near” happening at the moment according to Cheltenham chief executive Guy Lavender.
But looking ahead to the 2026 Cheltenham Festival, here are four horses we think could run big races:
Marine Nationale – Champion Chase 4/1
Barry Connell’s stable star was awesome when winning the Champion Chase this year and all roads lead back to the day two feature next March. The eight-year-old is set to make his seasonal reappearance in the Fortria Chase at Navan next month.
New opposition will of course be lining up to try and take Marine Nationale’s Cheltenham crown next year, but plenty of them have questions to answer at the same time.
Sir Gino could be absolutely anything, but he has to prove he still maintains his ability after spending time at an equine hospital and missing the business part of last season due to an infection, while Majborough has to brush up on his jumping after throwing away the Arkle earlier this year.
Il Etait Temps impressed when winning at Sandown after a year off the track. He finished third behind Gaelic Warrior in last year’s Arkle, having been fifth behind Marine Nationale in the 2023 Supreme and will need to show better than he has around Cheltenham to win the Champion Chase.
Meanwhile, Jonbon has never shown his best around Prestbury Park and his opportunity of winning the race JP McManus so desperately wants to add to his CV might just have passed.
Marine Nationale looks absolutely rock solid, with Connell reporting him to be “better than ever” ahead of his seasonal debut.
The Yellow Clay – Stayers’ Hurdle 14/1
Gordon Elliott has won two of the last three runnings of the Stayers’ Hurdle and had the second and third in this year’s race behind Bob Olinger with Teahupoo and The Wallpark. He knows all about getting one ready for the Thursday contest.
The Meath handler has suggested that The Yellow Clay will be aimed at the Stayers’ Hurdle and the 14/1 he is available at now looks a super each-way price.
This six-year-old son of Yeats was only beaten ¾ of a length by The New Lion in the Turners back in March. The New Lion is as short as 10/3 for the Champion Hurdle so The Yellow Clay’s price is all wrong on that form. Of course you do have to ignore his run at Punchestown at the end of last season, but horses can underperform at that meeting.
Stablemate Teahupoo will also surely be aimed at the Stayers’ once again as he aims to win his crown back, while this year’s winner Bob Olinger will be 11 by the time next year’s renewal comes around.
Ballyburn looks set to go back over hurdles for Willie Mullins, with the Stayers Hurdle the potential long-term aim, but he has questions to answer after a disappointing novice campaign over fences.
Another Closutton horse, Jasmin De Vaux, also looks set to be aimed at the day three contest next year. Despite finishing last season with Grade 1 wins at both Cheltenham and Punchestown, there are still questions over his jumping.
If The Yellow Clay can get a few wins under his belt ahead of March, he won’t be the colour of the price he currently is.
Caldwell Potter – Ryanair Chase 14/1
Caldwell Potter was one of the most impressive winners at this year’s Cheltenham Festival and it will be interesting to see where his ceiling is this season.
Purchased for €740,000, he landed the Jack Richards Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase under Harry Cobden for Paul Nicholls, and looks set to make his seasonal reappearance in the Betfair Chase at Haydock next month.
Where he will go after that remains unclear, with Nicholls suggesting he could be a Gold Cup horse “in time”. That could mean the Ryanair might be the race for him next year and it’s a contest his owners, which include former Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, won just last year with Protektorat.
He is another that looks a huge each-way price, especially for a race that could cut up quite significantly between now and next March, although Fact To File would be very hard to beat if he takes this option again.
Majborough, Gaelic Warrior, Il Etait Temps and Jonbon are all ahead of Caldwell Potter, who also won the Grade 1 Mildmay Novices’ Chase at Aintree last season, in the betting for the Ryanair and none of them will probably run in the race.
Similar to The Yellow Clay, if Caldwell Potter lands a big pot between now and the Festival, he will surely be sent off at a single-figure price on the day if running in the Ryanair.
Galopin Des Champs – Gold Cup 6/1
In years to come, we will look back on Galopin Des Champs as one of the all-time greats of National Hunt racing. Two Cheltenham Gold Cups, three Irish Gold Cups, a Punchestown Gold Cup, two Savills Chases and a John Durkan are just some of the victories on his stellar CV.
The Audrey Turley-owned gelding will return to Prestbury Park next year hoping to regain his Gold Cup crown after finishing second to Inothewayurthinkin in this year’s renewal. He will do so as a ten-year-old and with Inothewayurthinkin being two years younger than Galopin Des Champs, it is likely that Gavin Cromwell’s star chaser is open to more improvement than GDC.
However, there is the possibility that Galopin Des Champs wasn’t at his best at Cheltenham for whatever reason this year and he was hugely impressive when winning at Punchestown subsequently.
Willie Mullins revealed on Wednesday that the nine-year-old could miss his seasonal reappearance in the John Durkan as the result of a ‘little hold-up’, but he should be firing on all cylinders come Cheltenham next year and looks too big a price considering he was sent off the 8/13 favourite for the race this year.
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