Cheltenham Festival 2026 tips: Ante-post selections for the Champion, Stayers’ & Supreme Hurdles

The 2026 edition of the Cheltenham Festival is fast approaching, and now seems like a good time to check out how the ante-post markets on betting sites for the big hurdle races are shaping up.

Shocks in this race have not been commonplace since Beech Road obliged at 50/1 in 1989, but Golden Ace won this race last year at 25/1, and Espoir D’Allen struck at 16/1 in 2019, so we’d be foolish to dismiss the possibility out of hand.

The layers still refuse to take the champion seriously, as evidenced by both her current best odds of 16/1 ante-post on horse racing betting sites, as well as her 22/1 win in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle in November.

You can’t really do much more than jump around and produce your best, or close to it, as she has done in both those races, as well as when second to State Man at Punchestown last May and you’d have to consider her for an each-way play at 16/1, given what she’s achieved. Even if she runs well but is placed (and she’s only finished outside the first three twice in her career), you’d be kicking yourself afterwards at passing up some profit.

She has six lengths to find with Sir Gino on their Christmas Hurdle form and his best hurdles form is more than half a stone superior to her best effort, while he also has youth on his side.

That Kempton success made it 6-6 over the smaller obstacles for Nicky Henderson’s charge who, as we know, was to have been campaigned over fences before stable companion Constitution Hill’s star began to fade.

The latter is obviously a massive price based on his best form but whether we will ever see that again, or whether he will turn up and try to regain the crown he won in 2023, remains to be seen.

After he’d fallen early on at Newcastle, The New Lion looked as though he could be catapulted into favouritism for the Blue Riband event but he, too, crashed out at the business end. I’d be much less worried about him than Constitution Hill, although only time will tell.

His trainer Dan Skelton said all they could do was to jump plenty of obstacles with him between then and March and I don’t think the gelded son of Kayf Tara will lack for practice or preparation.

Aside from that spill, last year’s winner of the Turner’s Novices’ Hurdle at the Festival has plenty of boxes ticked, other than his best form being around 7lb below that of Sir Gino. One thing the Skelton inmate won’t lack is the stamina to get him up the hill but then the favourite’s pedigree suggests that he, too, won’t be stopping and he does have greater pace than The New Lion.

Don’t get me wrong, The New Lion can travel but you’d think his best chance of success would be to try to run the sting out of Sir Gino from the front, because if it’s a slowly run race, it would play into the Henderson horse’s hands.

With State Man out, LOSSIEMOUTH will carry plenty of Irish support and is Willie Mullins’ shortest-priced runner at 6/1. She had room to spare when winning the December Hurdle at Leopardstown recently, with stable companion Anzadam, who is a 25/1 shot for the Festival, nearly seven lengths back in fourth.

It’s hard to see the latter, who still has a tendency to race with the choke out, reversing those placings unless ‘WPM’ finds a way of getting him to settle better between now and March. A strong pace at Cheltenham would suit him and I do think he’ll stay, so he could be one of those to consider each-way for a place, perhaps running on through beaten horses if he’s not done too much too soon. The alternative would be to let him set the pace, and we’d all find out what he’s made of if he were able to do so.

Back with Lossiemouth, who’s won the Triumph Hurdle and two Mares’ Hurdles in three visits to the Cheltenham Festival. She’s at the top of her game this season, winning Grade 1 races in the Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown and the aforementioned December Hurdle.

It’s clearly not going to be a huge surprise if she comes home in front on the day but for me, she’d be vulnerable to both The New Lion and Sir Gino, if both produce their best… and if all three produce their best then we could witness an absolute humdinger of a battle up the hill.

I do think Sir Gino holds all the aces and looks the most likely winner but he is plenty short enough and it won’t cost us a vast amount if we wait until the day to back him to win. For me, in a potential for profit sense, the bet at the moment is Lossiemouth, each-way at 6/1 on horse racing betting apps.

I think she has a great chance of being in the first three and her course form, as well as her general well-being this season, both suggest that she will produce her best on the day and then it’s down to whether anything else can produce better. Make it a ‘non-runner no bet’ investment, in case plans change.

Cheltenham Festival 2026 ante-post tip 1: Lossiemouth (Champion Hurdle, Tuesday 10th March) – 2pts ew @ 6/1 (William Hill)

Compared to some Festival races, this has not been kind to favourite-backers in the past decade, with just Thistlecrack (2016), Paisley Park (2019) and the 2024 champion Teahupoo winning it from the head of the market. Instead, six double-figure priced runners have gone in, Lisnagar Oscar (2020) topping the list at 50/1.

The Gordon Elliott-trained Teahupoo was turned over by Bob Olinger in this last year and was also the beaten favourite when third to 33/1 winner Sire Du Berlais in 2023. He is 1-4 at the track and, while he’s only flopped once, in the 2022 Champion Hurdle, his absolute best form has been at home in Ireland.

At the 7/4 currently on offer on some betting apps, I’m happy to watch and if he wins then so be it but I don’t think there is much value in that price at present. Instead, I like the promise shown by IMPOSE TOI, who is only officially 3lb inferior to Teahupoo but is currently more than three times his price.

When I say promise, this is an improving hurdler. He’s been described as slow by his trainer Nicky Henderson but the great man would have a tendency to play things down. He did also say, having watched Impose Toi win a Pertemps Qualifier at Aintree in November, that he didn’t think he was going to be a graded horse.

It just shows that even one as experienced as the master of Seven Barrows can get it wrong because since then his eight-year-old has won Newbury’s Grade 2 Long Distance Hurdle and added the Grade 1 Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot last month. On both occasions, he beat the very good yardstick Strong Leader, who looks very likely to reoppose in March.

Henderson says Impose Toi does very little at home and it’s entirely possible that there’s a fair bit more under the bonnet than we’ve seen so far. He’s won at the track and also ran a cracker to beat all bar Jimmy Du Seuil in last year’s Coral Cup and he looks worth an each-way play at 7/1.

He’s due to have one more run before the Festival and that price will shorten should his progress continue.

Cheltenham Festival 2026 ante-post tip 2: Impose Toi (Stayers’ Hurdle, Thursday 12th March) – 1pt ew @ 7/1 (bet365)

Will we be roaring both before and after the opener at the Festival? El Cairos heads the market at the moment, having looked like pulling off an impressive win in a big field maiden hurdle at Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting.

He breezed past the leaders heading to the last, jumped it well enough but then stumbled when clear of the flight and crashed out. You’d be hard pressed to suggest he wouldn’t have won that well, and his Cheltenham odds of 9/2 at the moment is probably a fair reflection with regard to the Gordon Elliott-trained runner, who cost £410,000 in the autumn.

That performance was all about promise but the form on the board in the two mile novices’ division is by OLD PARK STAR. Nicky Henderson has had plenty of success in this contest and he knows a good one when he sees one.

Old Park Star didn’t manage to win a bumper but ran well in all three starts for Paul Nicholls, before changing hands in the autumn. He put up a lovely performance to win on his stable/hurdles debut at Kempton in November and then dotted up, despite racing freely, over slightly further than the Supreme trip on the New Course at Cheltenham in December (the Supreme is, of course, contested on the Old Course).

That was impressive, as was the performance of TALK THE TALK, who loomed large heading towards the last in the Grade 1 Future Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown, before ballooning the hurdle and falling on landing, upsides the eventual winner Skylight Hustle.

The latter has to enter calculations and it would be no surprise if he becomes the first horse since Appreciate It in 2020 to win that Christmas contest and the Supreme, though at this stage I’d rather take the Joseph O’Brien runner out of that race. The way Sam Ewing was able to manoeuvre him as he liked suggested there was plenty of horse left under him and will serve him well as they begin the climb up the Prestbuty Park hill.

British probables Mydaddypaddy (Dan Skelton) and Idaho Sun (Harry Fry) both have some cracking form, the latter having also beaten the former in the Grade 1 Formby Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree recently. Both are respected, while if there is still one talent to emerge between now and March, it could be in the form of Fou De Toi. At present, he is Willie Mullins’ shortest-priced Supreme hope at 16/1.

He’s only had one run in a hurdle when trained in France but has not seen the track since that debut in May 2024. It would be something incredibly special if his trainer were to win this with him after such an absence and you’d expect to see him have at least one run if he is to put himself seriously in the picture. At the moment he holds no entries other than the novices’ championship.

From a betting perspective, everything else we’ve seen is going to need significant improvement to win and, as we know, this is not a race littered with shocks. Only one of the last ten winners returned a double-figure SP (Labaik in 2017 at 25/1), albeit only three favourites have won over the same period.

For me, the two bets at the moment are Old Park Star and Talk The Talk, because the probability of both being heavily involved looks high and they both offer a little rope on an each-way basis. Again, if you can get ‘non runner no bet’ on them, even better but I think both runners are likely to shorten before the big day and taking a price now looks positive.

- Talk The Talk (Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, Tuesday 10th March) – 1pt ew @ 8/1 (Ladbrokes)

- Old Park Star (Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, Tuesday 10th March) – 1pt ew @ 6/1 (Unibet)

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