BetTurtle Blog

The 2025 Cheltenham Festival runs from Tuesday 11th March - Friday 14th March.

It is a significant week for betting, with millions of pounds that will be wagered across the 28 races.

This article provides an overview of the course, the key races at the meeting, the trainers and jockeys to watch out for and how to use BetTurtle to help find winners.

The Course

Cheltenham Racecourse is known as the “Home of Jump Racing” and the course presents unique challenges to horses and jockeys alike, with its undulating terrain, stiff fences and famous uphill finish providing a stern test of stamina and skill.

The racecourse features the old and new courses and each has its own unique characteristics and challenges, with a variety of fences and hurdles for the horses to navigate.  The New course, used for the latter part of the Festival is known for its demanding finish, with a longer run-in for the final stretch, testing the stamina and determination of the horses and jockeys.  Additionally the Cross Country Course offers a unique test with its variety and natural man made obstacles.

The Races

The Festival is spread over four days, each with its own set of feature races.

DAY 1 Champion Hurdle Day - Tuesday, 11th March 2025

• Supreme Novices’ Hurdle: The opening race of the festival, showcasing top novice hurdlers.  Top stat: 15 of the previous 16 winners were aged five or six.
• Arkle Challenge Trophy: A test for novice chasers over two miles. Top Stat: Willie Mullins has won the race 6 times and Nicky Henderson 4 times.
• Ultima Handicap Chase:  A challenging handicap chase over three miles.
• Mares’ Hurdle: A race for the leading female hurdlers. Top Stat: Willie Mullins has won the race 10 times.
• Champion Hurdle: The day’s feature race, for elite hurdles over two miles. Top Stat: Constitution Hill is undefeated and should win.
• Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle: A  handicap hurdle for juvenile horses.
• Princess Royal National Hunt Chase: A long distance chase for amateur riders.
  

DAY 2: Wednesday, 12th March 2025

• Turners Novices’ Hurdle: For novice hurdlers, covering two miles and five furlongs. Top Stat: Irish trainers have won 10 of the last 11 races with Willie Mulling winning 7 times.
• Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase: A test for novice chasers over three miles. Top Stat: 12 winners started at odds of 8/1 or less. 
• Coral Cup: A highly competitive handicap hurdle.
• Cross Country Chase:  A unique race over the cross country course.
• Queen Mother Champion Chase:  The highlight of the day, featuring the best two-mile chasers. Top Stat: Nicky Henderson has won this race 5 times and Henry De Bromhead 4 times.
• Grand Annual Chase: A historic chase over two miles.
• Champion Bumper: A flat race for National Hunt horses. Top Stat: Willie Mullins has won this race 13 times. 

Day 3: Thursday, 13th March 2025

• Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle: A race for novice female hurdlers. Top Stat: Willie Mullins has won this race 5 times.
• The Golden Miller Novices’ Handicap Chase: A race for novice chasers over two and a half miles.
• Pertemps Final Handicap Hurdle: The final of the pertemps series.
• Ryanair Chase:  A prestigious chaser over two miles and five furlongs. Top Stat: Willie Mullins has won this race 5 times.
• Stayers’ Hurdle:  The leading long-distance hurdle race of the festival. Top Stat: 9 of last 11 winners were aged 6 or 7. 
• Plate Handicap Chase: A handicap chase over two miles and five furlongs
• Kim Muir Challenge Cup: A chase for amateur riders over three and a quarter miles.

Day 4: Gold Cup Day- Friday, 14th March 2025

• Triumph Hurdle:  The top juvenile hurdle race of the festival. Top Stat: Willie Mullins has won 4 of the last 5 runnings.
• County Handicap Hurdle: A competitive handicap hurdle.
• Mares’ Chase: A chase for female horses over two and a half miles. Top Stat: The last three winners were owned by J P McManus. 
• Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle:  A test for staying novice hurdles over three miles. Top Stat: No favourite has won this race since 2013. 
• Cheltenham Gold Cup:  The most prestigious case of the festival, over three miles and two and half furlongs. Top Stat: Willie Mullins has trained 4 winners from the last 6 runnings.
• Challenge Cup Open Hunters Chase: Often called the “amateurs’ Gold Cup”, over the same course and distance as the Gold Cup.
• Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle: A race for conditional Jockeys

The Irish Invasion

The Irish love Cheltenham. Horses, trainers, owners and race fans make their annual pilgrimage to the festival in their thousands.

There is healthy competition between Irish and British based horses. In recent years Irish trainers W P Mullins, Henry De Bromhead and Gordon Elliott have won the majority of the races. With British trainers Nicky Henderson, Dan Skelton and Paul Nicholls struggling to compete with them.

The Jockeys

The jockeys to watch out for at the festival are listed in the table below;

This year, the horses ridden by Paul Townend, Nico De Boinville and Mark Walsh are the ones to watch out for, as they are widely expected to be battling for the top jockey prize. 

BetTurtle Tools To Help With Winner Finding

Alongside the usual wealth of information and tools BetTurtle provides, here are the tools that can help provide a betting edge against other festival punters.

10 Year Trends

Using the 10 year trends feature allows you to identify patterns for past winners of Cheltenham races. This includes trainer and jockey wins, age and weight ranges, course and distance specialists, betting odds ranges, betting favourite winners, etc.

To view the 10 year trends click the icon below on any race card. 

Trainer Country Flags

To help you identify trainers from other countries, BetTurtle provides country flags next to the trainers name. This way you can easily spot the Irish from the British based trainers (no flag) on the BetTurtle racecards. 

Summary Stats

Clicking the BetTurtle Summary stats button on any race card gives you instant access to quickly compare all of the ratings and vital statistics for each horse.