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The Cheltenham Festival is one of the most iconic festivals in UK racing and is almost upon us again in 2025. With races such as the Queen Mother Champion Steeple Chase and the Ryanair Steeple Chase, it’s clear why it’s so well loved. Of course, the Gold Cup is by far the most popular race at Cheltenham, and this year’s edition is set to further reaffirm this.

 

Looking through the expected field shows some top-class trainers, horses and jockeys ready to battle it out. But who are the favourites for this year’s Gold Cup?

 

Galopin Des Champs

 

As shown at Oddschecker (https://www.oddschecker.com/cheltenham-festival/gold-cup-runners), Galopin Des Champs is many people’s hot favourite for this iconic race in 2025.

 

This is no surprise when you think that he won the event in both 2023 and 2024. Another victory in 2025 would be his third Gold Cup on the bounce and provides plenty of motivation for jockey Paul Townend to bring him home first.

 

To really get a feel for why he’s so many people’s favourite, you have to take into account his recent form. A first place at the back end of December 2024 in the Class 1 Savills Chase was impressive enough, but this was followed by a third Irish Gold Cup on the spin at Leopardstown in early February 2025. It leaves Galopin Des Champs in top form and looking like the one to beat.

Fact To File

 

If anyone is going to spoil the party for Galopin Des Champs, another Willie Mullins horse in the shape of Fact To File looks most likely. He won well as a novice at Cheltenham 2024 and this will stand him in good stead at this year’s event.

 

Another positive sign for his chances is having top jockey Mark Walsh on board. He knows what it takes to win at the festival and has done so multiple times before (including a 2023 Stayers’ Hurdle win on Sire Du Berlais). He’s also ridden Fact To File to numerous wins previously – including a victory over Galopin Des Champs in the John Durkan Memorial Chase. However, Fact To File’s last two races have seen him lose out to Galopin Des Champs and this is a concerning sign.

 

Banbridge

 

Banbridge is up there in the betting for the Gold Cup and is trained by Joseph Patrick O’Brien. There’s no doubt that he has the talent to stake his claim come race day, and he showed this with a fine win in the King George at Kempton recently.

 

He needs to continue with this form for the Gold Cup and put behind him the Bar One Racing Hilly Way Chase at Cork in early December, when he unseated his rider. One thing that does go in this horse’s favour is how well he reacted to stepping up in distance last time out. This suggests unexposed form at this trip, but it remains to be seen how well he handles the stamina-sapping Gold Cup run-in.

 

Corbetts Cross

 

Although a sixth at Kempton in December doesn’t bode well, this horse did win at Cheltenham in 2024! Some horses come alive at certain events and it wouldn’t surprise you to see Corbetts Cross loving being back at Cheltenham Racecourse. He needs to really up his game to take on Galopin Des Champs, but coming first in the Amateur Jockeys’ Novices’ Chase shows that he knows how to win.

 

Cheltenham Gold Cup 2025: Galopin Des Champs looks favourite

 

While it’s impossible to be certain about anything in racing, it’s clear that Galopin Des Champs is the Gold Cup favourite in 2025. He’s streets ahead in the betting and this hints that plenty of punters fancy him to make it a third race win on the trot. It’s no foregone conclusion though, with Fact To File, Banbridge and Corbetts Cross being his main rivals.

The Cheltenham Festival Races is fast approaching. It’s regarded by many as one of the most talked-about horse races on the United Kingdom’s National Hunt calendar.

The event lasts days, and to kick things off, the Supreme Novices Hurdle 2025 opens the event at 12:20 on Tuesday, 11 March. The Martin Pipe Handicap Hurdle 2025 is the final race at 17:20 on Friday, 14 March.

If you are considering having a flutter on any of the 28 races that will be held throughout the four-day festival at Cheltenham Racecourse in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and want to know about how you can place strategic, more informed bets that are more likely to return a profit, you’ve come to the right place. Of course, you’re never guaranteed to win.

Here’s everything you need to know about making smart bets on the upcoming Cheltenham Festival on today’s safest UK sportsbooks.

How to find a safe online sports betting site with Cheltenham Festival markets

From our experience, the safest thing to do would be to start by finding a fully licensed and regulated UK online sports betting site. You can find a comprehensive database of over 2,000 online casino and sports betting website reviews on the official askgamblers.com iGaming review site.

We suggest starting with their top 10 or 20 recommendations and then comparing the reviews to see which of their featured brands might be a more suitable option for you based on your sports betting needs and preferences.

The important thing to remember about their highest-rated recommendations is that they are all known for having some of the most highly competitive odds for the annual Cheltenham Festival races and for almost every other major professional sporting discipline in the world.

Markets are available for:

• The National Basketball Association (NBA)

• The English Premier League (football or soccer if you’re based in North America)

• Germany’s Bundesliga– Germany’s top-flight men’s domestic football league

• Serie A– Italy’s top-flight men’s football league

• La Liga – Spain’s equivalent of the above three football leagues

• UEFA Champions League (annual European football competition)

• Ligue 1 – France’s highest-tier football league

They also have thousands of markets every month for the Belgian Pro League, Eredivisie, UEFA Conference League, NHL, NFL, UEFA Europa League, US Open, Australian Open and MLS, plus countless other sports leagues and tournaments.

You must be at least 18 years old to join any of their suggested UK online sports betting sites, and you must register a real money account if you wish to place bets on any of these sporting events.

What are the biggest races at the Cheltenham Festival?

Four of the 28 races that spectators and online bettors will be focussing on this year are the Champion Hurdle on 11 March at 16:00, the Champion Chase at 16:00 on 12 March, the Stayers Hurdle at 16:00 on 13 March, and the Gold Cup at 16:00 on 14 March, the final day. However, you may already have your eye on other races.

If you’re looking to bet on or watch something else, the other notable races that you might want to look into are the Arkle Chase, the Grand Annual Chase, the Pertemps Network Final, the Kim Muir Challenge Cup, the Triumph Hurdle, and the Mares Chase, to name a few.

What will the ‘going’ be like at Cheltenham this year?

At any horse racing event, the ‘going’ is a term used to describe the weather, which also tells us roughly what the course conditions will be like for the thoroughbreds. If you learn more about which horses and jockeys perform well under specific weather and course conditions, it can help you place far more strategic bets.

However, it’s still far too early to tell what the going will be this year at Cheltenham. Last year, temperatures climbed from lows of around 4°C-5°C (around 39°F to 41°F) throughout the night to highs of 8°C-9°C in the day (around 46°F to 48°F), with less than 10% precipitation, which meant the going was good/good to soft. It’s likely that it will be similar this year.

How to make smart bets on the 2025 Cheltenham Festival

As mentioned, it helps to know what the going will be on the day and which runners will perform the best under those conditions. It also helps to learn the odds and implied probability rates.

We suggest avoiding betting on too many underdogs with high odds and low implied probability rates. For example, a horse that’s less likely to win may be priced at 100/1 or higher in the fractional odds format, which is the same as saying +10,000 in the moneyline odds format and 101.00 in decimal odds.

In other words, a horse that’s priced at 100/1 only has a 1.00% implied probability rate (IPR) of winning. However, that doesn’t mean that they won’t win, but a horse that is priced at 2/5 (-250 or 1.40) has a 71.40% implied probability rate and is far more likely to win that race outright than a 100/1-priced horse.

A few examples of outsiders who have won major UK horse racing events are The Last Suspect, which was priced at 50/1 (51.00 or +5,000) with only a 2.00% IPR and ended up winning the Grand National in 1985.

Other longshots who have upset the odds and won this same major UK horse racing event in the past include Aurora’s Encore in 2013 (66/1) and Mon Mone in 2008 (100/1), which illustrates that horses with low IPRs and high odds can sometimes win. However, it doesn’t happen very often.

We also mustn’t forget to mention each-way bets, which are also quite popular, especially for beginners or anyone looking to play things safe. With this bet, you win if your horse ends up finishing in the top three. However, at major events like Cheltenham, bookies often pay up to five places, not just three.

Conclusion

The important thing to remember about betting on horses is that you are never guaranteed to win, but there are ways to mitigate risk and place more sensible bets. Understanding what the odds and IPRs are trying to tell you can massively help you make more informed decisions.

Try to determine the current form of the horses you wish to bet on for at least their last five races to assist in your betting. To ensure you don’t exceed your spending budget, bet sensible amounts and consider manually setting session time reminders, deposit limits, win/loss limits or spending caps, known as safer gambling tools.

Safer gambling keeps things safe and fun and will ensure you get the most out of your Cheltenham Festival betting experience.

To be the best jockey in racing, you need to have an immense amount of natural talent… and have friends in high places.

For Paul Townend, the stars have aligned to hand him both of those attributes. He’s a fantastic horseman, with an innate knowledge of race strategy relative to each individual horse he rides.

And that talent has seen him hand-selected by none other than Willie Mullins to be his number one rider… giving Townend access to some of the best jumps horses in training today.

Is it any wonder, then, that the 34-year-old is closing in on yet another Irish Champion Jockey title? At the time of writing in February, he’s earned £1.65 million in prize money during the 2024/25 season. His nearest competitor, Sam Ewing, is back on £1.17 million… and he’s ridden in twice the number of races.

With 34 Cheltenham Festival wins to his name, including four Gold Cups courtesy of Al Boum Photo and Galopin Des Champs (twice apiece), can anybody stop Townend from dominating at the March meeting once more?

Here’s a look at those most likely to challenge for top jockey honours…

Nico De Boinville

The best jockey crown at the Cheltenham Festival is awarded to the rider with the most wins over the four days… other results are only taken into consideration if two or more handlers are tied.

So that explains why Townend is such a hot favourite to land the honour, given that he gets the plum rides from Mullins’ yard – even just five or six winners could be enough to top the jockeys’ standings.

But Nico De Boinville is no forlorn hope in that regard, representing Great Britain’s best chance of ending the Irish monopoly at Prestbury Park.

He has a number of potential winners booked, with Constitution Hill – a former Champion Hurdle victor – looking to win again for De Boinville and his trainer, Nicky Henderson. The eight-year-old, who has won both of his races so far in 2024/25, is available at best Cheltenham odds of 4/6 to land a second triumph in the renewal.

However, De Boinville’s hopes have been tarnished by the absence of not one but two elite-level campaigners, who will both be forced to miss the Cheltenham Festival. Sir Gino, a Grade 1 winner who has already prevailed twice at Prestbury Park, has suffered a potentially career threatening injury.

And Joyeuse, who was so impressive when winning a prestigious handicap race at Newbury in February, cannot compete at Cheltenham because she hasn’t raced five times or more… a pre-requisite for the festival.

So can De Boinville get over those two losses and still challenge for top jockey honours?

Mark Walsh

Given Ireland’s dominance of the Cheltenham Festival – Irish horses won 12 of the 14 Grade 1 races at the meeting in 2024, it’s only natural that one of Townend’s countrymen could be one of his closest rivals at the March showpiece.

Mark Walsh is one of those quiet, under-the-radar types, but his talent cannot be questioned. At the time of writing, just four jockeys had amassed €1 million or more in prize money on Irish soil in 2024/25… Walsh, one of that contingent, had done so in the fewest number of races.

He’s a freelance jockey that will take rides from Mullins, Henry de Bromhead, Joseph O’Brien and more, which gives him the opportunity to saddle a wider range of horses than somebody like Townend, who has that exclusivity deal in place.

Walsh will likely take the ride on a number of big players at Cheltenham, including Majborough, Fact to File and Perceval Legallois.

Jack Kennedy

It’s a race against time for Jack Kennedy to be fit for the 2025 edition of the festival.

He broke his leg – the sixth time he has suffered such a sickening injury – back in November, with the recovery period such that it will be touch and go right up to the meeting’s start on March 11.

If he can make it in time, there’s no doubting Kennedy’s Cheltenham credentials. He’s been in the saddle for 12 wins at the festival – on eleven different horses, no less, with his triumph aboard Minella Indo in the Gold Cup back in 2021 the undoubted highlight.

Kennedy would presumably ride his regular companions, including Brighterdaysahead, Spillane’s Tower and Farren Glory, who would each be a genuine contender to win their respective races.

But, all that being said, Paul Townend remains very much the man to beat.

Punters are a varied breed. Some like National Hunt racing, others love Flat racing. Within both of those code are a plethora of appoaches. For example, some may only bet on horses which race in Selling and Claiming races. Perhaps you are the bumper specialist and that’s your angle. Each to their own. It makes sense to follow what works for you, and to have a niche. It is as close as you will get to mastering your expertise. Not one person knows everything to a high level so where you place your focus matters.

Most gamblers are frightened of betting on  debutantes. That blank slate. ‘How do you pick between the lines of a 20-field maiden comprising solely of debutantes?

This is the funny part. Most gambler think someone who bets on debutantes has lost the plot. They simple cannot know what they are doing in their stance. They think it literally makes no sense at all why someone would favour betting on this type of horse compared with a form horse with proven ability. They follow the crowd. In any area risk and finance related, does that really get you anywhere? What did those who side stepped the likes of cryptocurrenty (bitcoin etc) and other since recognised opportunities gain? Nothing.

Now… I don’t want to be too dissmissive to any readers who think the same because there is a lot to be said for betting on proven form horses. But what are you going to do if there is a debutante or two in a race you are betting? Perhaps you just stick your head in the sand, like an ostrich, and pretend it doesn’t exist? Just ignore it. Don’t bet because you are worried about it but don’t understand the pros and cons.

The reality is that debutantes can make very good bets if you understand what you are doing.

Do you want to have a low barrier to entry or a high one? Everyone knows about the low barrier. It’s routine, everyday, run-of-the-mill. Logically and strategically you want to know a subject which isn’t easy to master and has a high barrier to entry or at least to be able to think outside of the box, and here that is betting on debutantes. In the financial world take bitcoin for example and the best bitcoin casino sites out there. In the early days, it took a combination of both rationality thinking out of leftfield to see its potential. Most were blind to it and a massive opportunity passed them by. 

So what are the best ways of assessing a two-year-old debutante horse?

There are a few ways:

Horse Trainer:

Probably the best way of assessing a debutante is by horse trainer. It is a fact that certain trainers specialise in winning with debutantes while other either have no juveniles in training or no record or intention of achieving this goal. You may wonder what intention has to do with anything. It has everything to do with everything. Horses don’t win on debut without intention. The likes of Archie Watson train their horses to be fit and ready. There are many others who can win on debut but it is far from easy and compared with the average strike rate of juveniles on their second start much poorer statistically. If you want to understand betting on debutantes you need to understand a trainer first.

Betting:

The betting can be very important to the chance of a debutant winning on its first run. However, for many horses it means nothing at all. You may be thinking well that doesn’t help much. The point about betting and starting odds relates to the horse trainer. Certain horse trainers very rarely win on debut at speculative odds. In fact, some only win when their debutantes are short priced. If you don’t know this information you will be betting blind or have little hope of winning.

Breeding & Sales price:

There is little doubt the best horses have the best breeding and often cost a lot of money if going through the sales ring. However, there is no guarantee that a £1M horse will win on debut. In fact, the following year it may be sold for a fraction of the price. There is an incentive for many high-profile breeders to make sure sales prices don’t go down. And in some sense these wealthy individuals don’t lose any sleep when an expensive horse fails to deliver. But there is a correlation between a well bred horse and sales tag compared to those who don’t. Out of the three suggestions I would favour this one least.

Conclusion:

In truth, most punters are scared of betting debutantes for good reason. They don’t understand what they are doing. There are ways to appreciate the better debutantes but it takes skill. Horse trainers, betting and breeding and sales price all help the novice to become an expert. But with all aspects of gambling, the pursuit of knowledge never comes easy and always at a price.