With the promise of spring lifting sprits across the country, the racing world is descending upon Cheltenham for a 2026 Festival sure to deliver more than its fair share of highs and lows for aficionados and occasional punters, alike.
ESPN will be with you every step of the way for what is the world’s most iconic week of jumps racing, with all the latest news, reaction and daily live coverage across all four days of the Festival.
But what is the Cheltenham Festival? When are the races? What are the names you need to look out for? Here, we provide everything you need to know.
What is the Cheltenham Festival?
Simply put, Cheltenham is the World Cup of jumps racing. It is the week where the best National Hunt horses in the land head to Prestbury Park and compete in some of the most lucrative and prestigious races in the sport.
The meeting spans four days, from Tuesday until Friday with seven races per day, each of them of differing lengths and challenges.
This year, Cheltenham is taking place between Tuesday March 10 and Friday March 13, with races beginning at 1.20 p.m. GMT and the last race being run at 5.20 p.m. GMT.
Each day has its own name — Champion Day, Ladies Day, St Patrick’s Thursday and Gold Cup Day.
The feature race is always the fifth race of the day, which starts at 4 p.m. GMT, with the exception of Thursday, in which there are two feature races which start at 3:20 p.m. and 4 p.m.
They are the following:
Tuesday March 13: The Unibet Champion Hurdle
Wednesday March 14: The BetMGM Queen Mother Champion Chase
Thursday March 15: The Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle & The Ryanair Chase
Friday March 16: The Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup
Where is the Cheltenham Festival?
Cheltenham is a town in Gloucestershire in the southwest of England.
It has a population of around 118,800 according to the 2021 Census and is renowned for hosting the Cheltenham Festival each spring.
It takes as little as 1 hour and 55 minutes to reach the town from London by train, while the racecourse is a further 15-minute drive away, or an hour’s walk if you want to get the steps in.
Around 250,000 spectators attend the festival each year, equating to approximately 65,000 per day. The Festival is said to be worth an estimated £274 million to the local economy.
How to watch the Cheltenham Festival
You can keep up with the latest action and reaction to all the races with ESPN’s live blog which will run daily throughout the festival.
The 2026 Cheltenham Festival is available to watch free to air on ITV1 and on ITVX. Full coverage is available on subscription channel Racing TV.
Cheltenham Festival 2026 full schedule and prize money
Champion Day — Tuesday March 10
– Champion Day race times, weather, going, odds, favourites, more
1.20pm Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle (Grade 1) 2m 87y 4yo+ £150,000
2.00pm Singer Arkle Novices’ Chase (Grade 1) 1m 7f 199y 5yo+ £200,000
2.40pm McCoy Contractors Juvenile Handicap Hurdle Race (Registered as the Fred Winter) (Premier Handicap) 2m 87y 4yo £80,000
3.20pm Trustmarque Ultima Handicap Chase (Premier Handicap) 3m 1f 5yo+ £150,000
4.00pm Unibet Champion Hurdle (Grade 1) 2m 87y 4yo+ £450,000
4.40pm Sun Racing Plate Handicap Chase (Premier Handicap) 2m 4f 44y 5yo+ £150,000
5.20pm National Hunt Novices’ Handicap Chase 3m 5f 201y 5YO+ £100,000
Ladies Day — Wednesday March 11
– Ladies Day race times, weather, going, odds, favourites, more
1.20pm Turners Novices’ Hurdle (Grade 1) 2m 5f 4yo+ £150,000
2.00pm Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase (Grade 1) 3m 80y 5yo+ £200,000
2.40pm BetMGM Cup Handicap Hurdle (Premier Handicap) 2m 5f 4yo+ £110,000
3.20pm Glenfarclas Cross Country Handicap Chase 3m 6f 37y 5yo+ £75,000
4.00pm BetMGM Queen Mother Champion Chase (Grade 1) 1m 7f 199y 5yo+ £400,000
4.40pm Debenhams Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Handicap Chase (Premier Handicap) 1m 7f 199y 5yo+ £150,000
5.20pm Weatherbys Champion Bumper (In Memory of Sir Johnny Weatherby) (Grade 1) 2m 87y 4-6yo £80,000
St Patrick’s Thursday — Thursday March 12
– St Patrick’s Thursday race times, weather, going, odds, favourites, more
1.20pm Ryanair Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle (Grade 2) 2m 179y 4yo+ £105,000
2.00pm Jack Richards Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase (Grade 2) 2m 4f 127y 5yo+ £125,000
2.40pm Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle (Grade 1) 2m 3f 200y 4yo+ £125,000
3.20pm Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle (Grade 1) 2m 7f 213y 4yo+ £325,000
4.00pm Ryanair Chase (Grade 1) 2m 4f 127y 5yo+ £375,000
4.40pm Pertemps Network Final Handicap Hurdle (Premier Handicap.) 2m 7f 113y 5yo+ £110,000
5.20pm Rosconn Group Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Amateur Jockeys’ Handicap Chase 3m 2f 5yo+ £75,000
Gold Cup Day — Friday March 13
– Gold Cup Day race times, weather, going, odds, favourites, more
1.20pm JCB Triumph Hurdle (Grade 1) 2m 179y 4yo £150,000
2.00pm William Hill County Handicap Hurdle (Premier Handicap) 2m 179y 5yo+ £110,000
2.40pm Mrs Paddy Power Mares’ Chase (Grade 2) 2m 4f 127y 5yo+ £130,000
3.20pm Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle (Grade 1) 2m 7f 213y 5yo+ £150,000
4.00pm Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup (Grade 1) 3m 2f 70y 5yo+ £625,000
4.40pm The Princess Royal Challenge Cup Open Hunters’ Chase 3m 2f 70y 5yo+ £50,000
5.20pm Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle 2m 4f 56y 4yo+ £75,000
Quirks of Cheltenham
While Cheltenham is a jumps (or National Hunt as it is traditionally known) festival, there is actually one race, The Champion Bumper, that has no hurdles or fences — a flat race. It is always the last race on Ladies’ Day (Wednesday).
There is also the Cross Country Handicap Chase, often referred to as the Glenfarclas due to sponsorship reasons, which is a unique race at the festival, with a mixture of fences and obstacles on a cross country course before it finishes on the main track. It also takes place on Ladies’ Day.
The other 26 races are either over fences or hurdles. Fences, which are used in steeplechase races such as the Gold Cup are at least 4ft 7in (1.4m) high and are rigid, while hurdles are typically much smaller at 3ft 6in (1.1m) and have a level of flexibility.
Cheltenham is also synonymous with Guinness, and the Irish stout is rumoured to be as good as it is in Dublin during festival week. In 2025, it was estimated that punters drank 270,000 pints of Guinness, racking up a bar bill of £2.1m. It was enough liquid to fill three Olympic swimming pools.
Who are favourites at Cheltenham this year?
With Constitution Hill not running at Cheltenham and focusing on the flat, the 2026 Champion Hurdle is suddenly wide open.
Dan Skelton’s The New Lion is a strong favourite having won in the Novices’ Hurdle last year but 2025 champion Golden Ace, last year’s Triumph Hurdle winner Poniros and three-time Cheltenham winner Lossiemouth — should she step up from the Mare’s Hurdle — lie in wait, alongside Brightersdayahead who finished fourth last year.
In the Champion Chase, Willie Mullins’ Majborough, who disappointed as a 1/2 favourite in the Arkle last year, is strongly fancied once more over L’Eau du Sud after reigning champion Marine Nationale was pulled out.
Bambino Fever is an odds-on favourite in the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle on Thursday, while Gordon Elliott’s Wodhooh is a 4/5 favourite in the Mares Hurdle, though should Lossiemouth go for the three-peat, those odds will surely lengthen.
Thursday also sees another big favourite in Fact To File traverse the Ryanair Chase with Teahupoo marginally preferred by the bookmakers over stablemate Honesty Policy and Dan Skelton’s Kabral du Mathan in the Stayers’ Hurdle.
Friday’s Gold Cup is set to be hotly contested, with Gaelic Warrior, The Jukebox Man and Jango Baie long joint-favourites after 2023 and 2025 champion Inothewayurthinkin also well-backed in a very open field. Two-time winner Galopin Des Champs was withdrawn the week before the race and will not bid to complete his hat trick.
Key storylines to know
Harry Redknapp and The Jukebox Man
There is a growing feeling that football icon Harry Redknapp may be in the winners’ enclosure at Cheltenham once again, with The Jukebox Man among the frontrunners for the Gold Cup.
Redknapp picked up his first Cheltenham win with the aptly named Shakem Up’Arry in the 2024 Sun Plate Handicap Chase and the former Tottenham Hotspur manager could take home the big one this year.
– The Jukebox Man: All you need to know about Harry Redknapp’s Cheltenham Gold Cup horse
Galopin Des Champs pulls out of chance to match Kauto Star; Inothewayurthinkin looks to join elite list
The Jukebox Man is just one of several Gold Cup narratives but Galopin des Champs, winner of the race in 2023 and 2024, will not be competing as expected after suffering a setback.
Trainer Willie Mullins told Sporting Life: “After working very well on Thursday morning, he wasn’t right on Friday morning and will miss the Gold Cup and the other spring festivals.”
Galopin des Champs was aiming to match Kauto Star as the only horse to ever regain the Gold Cup, while 2025 champion Inothewayurthinkin is aiming to become the ninth Gold Cup winner to have defended their title.
Constitution Hill’s absence
Another major absentee this year is Constitution Hill, one of jump racing’s biggest names but the 2023 Champion Hurdle winner will not be at Cheltenham this year, or likely ever again.
After a respiratory infection ruled him out of defending his title in 2024, Constitution Hill fell in last year’s edition and trainer Nicky Henderson has deemed him continuing in jumps too risky.
The National Hunt’s loss is flat racing’s gain though, with the iconic horse shifting to the format.
Prestbury Cup
While winning individual races is what jockeys, trainers and owners alike are really interested in, there is a further prize up for grabs: the Prestbury Cup.
Irish trainers have won the competition each year since a draw in 2019 and, despite hopes of an improved showing from the British, are expected to do so again. The British haven’t won the Prestbury Cup since 2015.
– Prestbury Cup at the 2026 Cheltenham Festival explained: Score, winners, standings, more
Can anyone close the gap with Skelton in trainers’ championship?
Coming into Cheltenham, Dan Skelton holds an incredibly sizeable advantage in the British Trainers’ Championship but can anybody beat him?
Skelton has an almost £2m advantage in prize money over second-placed Paul Nicholls and third-placed Nicky Henderson.
Irishman Willie Mullins has 113 winners at Cheltenham and is considered the best in the business — he will need to prove that mantra again again in order to retain his title, sitting over £3m behind in prize money on £302,968.
If anyone thinks Mullins is out of the running though, just look back at last season, where he clawed back £860,000 in the Grand National alone on his way to an incredible comeback win, and Cheltenham is where his season tends to kick into gear.
Famous past Cheltenham winners
Of course, the real protagonists are the horses themselves and there are a handful of names that echo through the ages.
Arkle
Festival wins: Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase (1963), Gold Cup (1964, 1965 and 1966)
A horse so good that one of Cheltenham’s biggest races is named after it, Arkle is a true icon of the sport.
Arkle won the Cheltenham Gold Cup in three consecutive years between 1964 and 1966 and the second race of the festival — the Arkle Novices’ Chase — is named in his honour.
Dawn Run
Festival wins: Champion Hurdle (1984), Gold Cup (1986)
Dawn Run is the most successful mare in the history of National Hunt racing and is the only ever racehorse to win the Champion Hurdle-Gold Cup double, doing so in 1984 and 1986.
Istrabaq
Festival wins: Turners Novices’ Hurdle (1997), Champion Hurdle (1998, 1999 and 2000)
Those of a certain age will attest to the fact that you cannot talk about Cheltenham without mentioning Istabraq — the four-time Cheltenham winner.
Bred for flat racing after being sired by Sadler’s Wells, Istabraq arguably became the most dominant hurdler in the history of the sport, winning three consecutive Champion Hurdles between 1998 and 2000.
Best Mate
Festival wins: Gold Cup (2002, 2003 and 2004)
Another in Cheltenham royalty is Best Mate, who strode to Gold Cup glory from 2002 until 2004, and now has an enclosure named after him at the racecourse.
Kauto Star
Festival wins: Gold Cup (2007 and 2009)
One of the greatest horses of the 21st Century, Kauto Star has a unique slice of history on his side which make him a Cheltenham great.
A five-time King George VI Chase winner, Kauto Star is the only horse in the history of the Cheltenham Festival to have regained the Gold Cup — he won his first in 2007, was beaten in 2008 by stablemate Denman in an iconic race, and then won back his title in 2009.
Quevega
Festival wins: Mares’ Hurdle (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014)
In terms of dominance, Quevega is the most dominant horse in the history of the Cheltenham Festival.
The now retired mare won the Mares’ Hurdle six times in a row between 2009 and 2014, an unprecedented achievement.
Tiger Roll
Festival wins: Triumph Hurdle (2014), National Hunt Challenge Cup (2017), Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase (2018, 2019, 2021)
Tiger Roll’s most famous wins came in the Grand National, but he first earned recognition at Cheltenham — where he won the 2018, 2019 and 2021 Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase (the race did not run in 2020).
His Glenfarclas victories followed glory in the 2014 Triumph Hurdle and 2017 National Hunt Challenge Cup, which saw him follow only Quevaga and Golden Miller to five Festival wins.
Honeysuckle
Festival wins: Mare’s Hurdle (2020 and 2023), Champion Hurdle (2021 and 2022)
One of the all-time great mares, Honeysuckle enjoyed four straight years of success before her retirement, winning the Mares’ Hurdle in 2020 and 2023 and the Champion Hurdle in 2021 and 2022.
She was ridden by Rachael Blackmore, who made history as the first female to be leading jockey at Cheltenham and the first woman to win the Gold Cup.
Galopin des Champs
Festival wins: Martin Pipe Conditional Handicap Hurdle (2021), Gold Cup (2023 and 2024)
A modern great, Galopin des Champs triumphed at the Gold Cup in 2023 and 2024, narrowly failing to emulate Best Mate and Arkle and win three in a row when finishing second behind Inothewayurthinkin in 2025.
This year, Galopin Des Champs was looking become only the second horse to regain the Gold Cup after the iconic Kauto Star, but the 10-year-old black gelding was pulled out the week before the race with trainer Willie Mullins saying the horse “wasn’t right.”
News from the Cheltenham Festival
Inothewayurthinkin to mount Gold Cup defence; Fact To File not supplemented. Read
