2026 Cheltenham Festival ante-post tips: Four ante-post bets to consider

Cheltenham Festival markets are starting to take shape on betting sites, so now seems a good time to steer readers in the direction of a few ante-post considerations.

This time last year the dual winner, Galopin Des Champs, was very short odds to repeat the feat of the likes of Arkle and Best Mate and complete a hat-trick of Gold Cup wins.

As we know, he didn’t manage that, finishing a six-length second to Inothewayurthinkin. The Willie Mullins-trained gelding is now ten years old, which is not in itself a major barrier to success, but come March, he’ll be attempting to do what no other horse has ever done and win a third Gold Cup by regaining his crown (Kauto Star regained his crown when winning his second Blue Riband event).

The 6/1 on horse racing betting sites about the former champion is the biggest price offered about him since he won the Martin Pipe from Langer Dan at the 2021 Festival, when his SP was 8/1. Since then, he’s started as a short-priced favourite in 19 of his 20 starts, with the 2024 John Durkan (third at 16/5 behind Fact To File) being the anomaly.

So, do we get involved or not? Well, tempting as 6/1 is (and I speak as someone who didn’t back Galopin for either of his previous Gold Cup wins), the weight of history is against him. But of greater concern is his more recent form.

I wouldn’t be too down on his recent reappearance behind Affordale Fury in the Savills Chase, mainly because that’s three successive seasons in which he’s needed his first run after a break and has been beaten.

However, for the past two seasons, he’s shrugged that off to produce his best run of the season second time out, winning the Savills on both occasions, having been turned over in the John Durkan.

He has not needed to be at his best to win the Irish Gold Cup in those aforementioned seasons, and apart from going close to his best when winning this race in 2024, his form has not been as good as the season has unfolded.

This time, his next start looks likely to be in the Irish Gold Cup, which could take the edge of him at Cheltenham and we know you need to be at your absolute peak in March to win the big one.

Clearly, he’s still top drawer but we’re looking for margins here, as well as potential and while 6/1 may be an each-way bet to nothing, we’re trying to find the winner.

Last year’s winner hasn’t covered himself in glory in either the John Durkan or the Savills this season. He may prove a different animal when back at the Festival, and so I’m certainly not going to write him off, but he in himself is a great guide to finding many a Gold Cup winner.

Last season Inothewayurthinkin turned up as a Grade 1 winner who was still on the rise in his second season as a chaser. It’s become a perennial conundrum for punters in the Gold Cup but for some reason, whatever history tells us, those with experience in the race usually end up shorter than those with the promise of improvement and yet few horses win two Gold Cups and even fewer run well, get beaten and then return to win it.

That’s probably a long-winded way of saying that, for me, we need to be looking at those who have a touch of class but may still have their best days ahead. Into that category come King George winner The Jukebox Man; Arkle winner Jango Baie; proven Grade 1 winner Gaelic Warrior; Betfair Chase winner Grey Dawning and Irish and Welsh National winner Haiti Couleurs.

I’m expecting the winner of the 2026 Gold Cup to come from that quintet and, at the prices, I’m putting up two against the field in Grey Dawning and Gaelic Warrior. Jango Baie is another probable improver over the extended 3m2f trip and is feared, while The Jukebox Man is much respected after his Kempton effort and is unbeaten in four chases.

Dan Skelton described Grey Dawning as getting himself “in a pickle” after the 2024 Betfair Chase, and he didn’t make it to the Festival last year, but the trainer is a quick learner, and so too is the horse, apparently. He won this season’s Haydock Grade 1 in fine style and Skelton immediately nominated the Gold Cup and said his charge would have one more run before it.

He’s already got Festival-winning form, having won the Turner’s Novices’ Chase two seasons ago and he looks nailed on to be doing his best work up the hill in March. If his prep run goes well he’ll be nothing like 12/1 on betting apps thereafter.

As for Gaelic Warrior, regular readers will know I’m a big fan and I think this is the race he needs to really bring the best out of him. For a race like this, the winner needs the pace to lay up and the stamina to stay on up the hill.

He’s one of those horses who can’t have been the easiest to train in that respect, as he’s fairly keen and shows plenty of pace but also has plenty of guts at the business end, so nailing your colours to the mast early, in terms of what his best trip might be, would have been tricky.

Jockey Paul Townend admitted as much in a previous post-race interview when Gaelic Warrior had won over two miles. He’s already beaten my Ryanair fancy, his stablemate Fact To File, over that horse’s optimum trip this season and I don’t think he (nor any of the three narrowly beaten horses) lost any caste in defeat in the King George.

He’s a longer price than his dual Gold Cup-winning stablemate but he’s only eight years old and I really do think there’s another big Festival race in him. They may try to hold him up but I’d not be averse to him bowling along if whoever rides him on the day feels that’s best. I’d like to see him fresh on the big day, as he’s very good after a break and I hope his trainer bypasses Leopardstown with him.

Either of those selections could prove good enough and both can be backed each-way at the prices as they are at present.

Cheltenham ante-post tips

I was with Marine Nationale when he won this last year and I do think he would have prevailed even if Quilixios hadn’t come down at the last, although clearly not by the 18 lengths that it shows on his CV.

He again succumbed to Solness (the third time in the last two seasons ) in the Grade 1 Paddys Rewards Chase at Leopardstown over Christmas and Joseph O’Brien’s eight-year-old is 20/1 for the two-mile championship, compared to the 5/2 currently on offer about Barry Connell’s defending champ.

However, that’s perhaps not the ‘rick’ that it may first appear, as Marine Nationale’s best form is some way better than that of Solness and I still think he can reverse those placings come the big day.

Marine Nationale won the race as a rising star last time, improving throughout the campaign. This time, I think he is vulnerable to the current second-favourite Il Etait Temps.

There would clearly have to be some concern that the selection has been beaten in all three of his visits to Cheltenham, including by Marine Nationale in the 2023 Supreme. On two of those occasions, the Closutton inmate has not been fluent with his jumping (yes, I know, Festival alarm bells ringing).

However, on the positive side, he was still good enough to finish third to Gaelic Warrior in the 2024 Arkle, in spite of his jumping and he did produce a then-career best that day. That proved to be a turning point, as he’s won all five chases since (four of them Grade 1s), largely leaving those jumping issues behind him and beating Gaelic Warrior into the bargain.

He was brilliant in the Tingle Creek at Sandown last month and I think there is better still to come from him, so he’s my ante-post pick at 3/1.

Cheltenham ante-post tip: Il Etait Temps (Queen Mother Champion Chase, Wednesday 11th March) – 2pts win @ 11/4 (bet365)

If all those entered turn up, this could be the best Ryanair Chase we’ve ever seen but I suspect, in the end, many of the leading players in the current market will be aimed at other targets across the four days.

He’s not won yet this season and he was not at his best at Kempton in the King George VI Chase last time but I still think Fact To File is top drawer and I am looking no further than him at this stage, in terms of the Ryanair winner.

I selected him to beat stable companion Gaelic Warrior in the John Durkan at Punchestown in November and, of course, he came up just short in a real ding-dong finish.

At the time, I justified that selection by saying that I felt at the highest level, Fact To File is at his best over shorter than three miles but he’s still good enough to win top three mile races.

It appears that, after the King George, trainer Willie Mullins could be of the same opinion, as he’s only entered the JP McManus-owned gelding in this one race at the Festival. He’s plenty short enough given how far out we are but if he gets there in one piece on 12th March, he’ll be shorter, so 2/1 now looks like a voucher worth having and I think he has a great chance of successfully defending his crown.

He won this last year, of course, when the 6/4 favourite and that’s more like the price I’d be anticipating. It remains Fact To File’s career best effort. Heart Wood, who is likely to reoppose, was nine lengths behind him in second and is currently 14/1. If one or two others come out of the race then his price could crash before the day and I would not put you off having an each-way interest in him at a double-figure price.

Cheltenham ante-post tip: Fact To File (Ryanair Chase, Thursday 12th March) – 4pts win @ 2/1 (Ladbrokes)

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