With one of the biggest events in the horse racing calendar just around the corner, Cheltenham Festival is preparing for one of the biggest years in its history with plenty of entertainment and some of the best horses in the world featuring here!
With the best jockeys, trainers and horses around, the Cheltenham Festival is a four-day frenzy of horse racing action! Whether you are a horse racing fan who likes to study the odds and take advantage of the horse racing free bets or just a fan who enjoys the entertainment and excitement of horse racing, this preview will look through all the fascinating parts of the festival!
From the history of Cheltenham to the different races that are set to take place, we will be discussing the different favourites and how the festival looks at this moment in time.
Cheltenham Festival History
The annual ritual of the Cheltenham Festival is one of the most well-known and established events throughout the year, with the races taking place at Prestbury Park in March.
The four-day meeting stages championship races in pretty much every discipline that national hunt racing has to offer, be it over hurdles, fences, or flat track.
Some of the most prestigious races across the calendar take place here in the Cheltenham Festival, such as the Champion Hurdle, the Champion Chase and, of course, the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Looking at the origins of the festival, the first event took place in 1860, and each event took place at a different venue throughout the UK, with the venue selected each year by the National Hunt Committee. It took place at Prestbury Park in both 1904 and 1905, and finally, in 1911, the festival found its home at Cheltenham, therefore renaming the event to the Cheltenham Festival.
With the event chopping and changing from two days to three days, it has settled at four days at the moment, with the event taking place across Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Cheltenham Festival 2025 Favourites
When looking through the different races that are upcoming throughout the 2025 edition of the Cheltenham Festival, we can see why there is so much hype surrounding the event and why the meeting is one of the best on the calendar.
With the best horses in the world racing here, we can see fantastic and famous horses such as Galopin Des Champs, who is looking to win a third Gold Cup, whilst Constitution Hill is set to return to try and regain his Champion Hurdle Crown. Here, we will go through some of the biggest races that are set to take place across the days and who is currently the favourite to be victorious in these races.
It is important to remember that these odds can change due to differing factors such as injuries, weather conditions and horses dropping out of the race.
For the Champion Hurdle, Constitution Hill returns as the favourite by quite some margin, as Brighterdaysahead is tipped to be the closest challenger to the fan-favourite Constitution Hill. With Lossiemouth and State Man tipped to be behind the front two, horses such as Winter Fog and Senecia are tipped to be running towards the back of the field.
Then, on Wednesday, we are looking towards the Champion Chase, with the field being led by Jonbon, who is a clear favourite throughout this race. II Est Francais comes as a second-placed favourite at 4/1, whilst Gaelic Warrior and Energumene follow behind. With 20 horses in this race, the field to choose from is incredibly huge, making it one of the most interesting races of the event!
Moving on to Thursday, we will be looking at the Stayers’ Hurdle, which has a grand total of 30 runners and 12 hurdles! Teahupoo is Evens to be the winner of the race, whilst Home By The Lee is the second favourite with odds of 6/1. Despite the field being so large, the highest odds for a horse is 66/1, which is quite low considering how many horses are in the field, making this field a tricky choice to decide between!
Finally, looking at the most prestigious event at Cheltenham Festival, the Gold Cup. It should come as no surprise that Galopin Des Champs is the clear favourite, with Banbridge being the second best with odds of 6/1. The Gold Cup is known for its length and number of hurdles, with a whopping 22 hurdles being used throughout the Gold Cup race, making it one of the greatest challenges for both horse and jockey!
To conclude, the 2025 Cheltenham Festival is bound to be one of the biggest events throughout the National Hunt calendar! With the best horses and jockeys in the world, the Cheltenham Festival brings a whole host of entertainment and excitement with its fantastic horse racing action!
Feature image by Aliaksei Semirski on Pexels
