Ranking the Contenders to Win Each of Cheltenham 2026’s Championship Races

There are Cheltenham Festivals that confound the experts. Then there are Cheltenhams that rip the form book to shreds, upend the sport’s hierarchies, and send shockwaves rippling through the sport for years. Welcome to the legacy of 2025.

Across four glorious, riotous days, greatness faltered, consensus turned to chaos, and bettors clung to disbelief as odds-on favourites, considered near-mortal locks by even the most cynical, crashed and burned in rapid succession.

Constitution Hill, the champion hurdler cloaked in invincibility, found the turf at the fifth hurdle as he strove to regain his crown.

Teahupoo, so often the iron-clad stayer, never landed a blow. Jonbon, Majborough, and even the indomitable Galopin Des Champs, all toppled.

A Shocking 2025

The numbers speak with a cold clarity: the favourites returned less than at any Cheltenham in recent memory.

Prestbury Park’s mood swung between awe and devastation, agitated further as Poniros—sent off at a riotous 100-1—became the longest-priced Triumph Hurdle winner in the Festival’s storied history.

Jaws hung slack; trainers, spectators, and pundits muttered one word: “unbelievable.”

Gold Cup day sealed the sense of upheaval. Galopin Des Champs, on the cusp of an immortal three-peat, misfired in the clutch.

Inothewayurthinkin, a £20,000 foal who’d been supplemented for a princely £25,000 at the last minute, carved through the field, surging up the hill in a six-length statement that felt, amid the downpour and din, confirming of a changing of the guard.

Victory for Gavin Cromwell and JP McManus, heartbreak for the bookies’ darling.

Now, however, attention has immediately turned to what’s next. The 2026 Cheltenham Festival is now just three months away, and the betting markets already have their frontrunners priced up.

So, what is there to look forward to? Well, here is a full breakdown of the championship races’ contenders.

Champion Hurdle

The Champion Hurdle will headline Cheltenham’s opening day, and online racing betting sites have a clear favourite in mind.

That, of course, is Lossiemouth, who the latest Bovada horse betting odds make a 3/1 favourite to follow in the hooves of fellow mare Annie Powe.

In 2025, she extended her perfect Cheltenham record with an eight-length procession in the Mares’ Hurdle—a performance as clinical as it was unflappable.

But hers is no glass jaw: after a high-profile fall in the Irish Champion (a flock of seagulls the improbable culprit), she returned, unbeaten in spirit, and demolished Grade 1 rivals at Fairyhouse by seven.

Willie Mullins’ camp purr about her tactical speed and ice-cold temperament—qualities that, in a dicey Champion, could be worth their weight in gold.

Yet The New Lion (7/2) stalks, perfectly poised. There’s gallantry etched in the JP McManus colours, but this Skelton-trained progressive has numbers as sharp as his racing brain.

Four flawless hurdle wins in 2025, including a neck-to-neck war in the Turners on demanding ground. Newbury and Kempton romps clocked margins (10L, 5L) rarely seen at the top level—hinting at a horse only now brushing the ceiling of his ability.

Then comes the redemption saga: Constitution Hill (5/1). After falling as an odds-on favourite in 2025, as well as surrendering his crown due to a lung infection in 2024, one might consider this formerly fearsome champion as somewhat cursed.

Still, his record glistens: a Supreme demolition, a Christmas Hurdle magnum opus (won by nine), and a 170 official rating marking him as a generational talent.

Only one question needs to be asked: can he restore his mystique on the greatest stage of all?

Champion Chase

Sir Gino (3/1), the new phenom from the Henderson yard, makes the leap from hurdles to fences look like a walk through ploughed turf.

Unbeaten, untouchable—his 12-length evisceration of Kempton’s Wayward Lad field was so stylish it summoned memories of Sprinter Sacre.

Yes, a minor setback (bloody wound) forced him out of the Arkle, but his cold statistics—average margins in double digits—suggest raw ability still untapped. Logic says he’s the one to beat.

But narrative intervenes. Marine Nationale (4/1), the people’s winner, authored an 18-length Champion Chase triumph so emotional that hardened hacks blinked away tears.

Trained by Barry Connell, rejuvenated after wind surgery and heartbreak off-track, his “front-running verve” feels divinely matched to Cheltenham’s undulating home straight.

He’s 6-4-2 in his last major preps; horses with those numbers, allied to his championship temperament, are never to be underestimated.

With the memory of his late rider, Michael O’Sullivan, behind every stride, Marine Nationale is fighting for more than just glory.

Stayers’ Hurdle

Teahupoo (7/2), a chestnut titan for Gordon Elliott, is both the benchmark and the enigma.

His 2024 four-length mauling of Irish Point remains instructional viewing for students of stamina: accelerations off a slow early pace, sectional times in the red.

Skipping Cheltenham in 2025 was a tactical swerve, but his ledger—fourth, second, first, second at the Festival—is the envy of the field.

Kennedy knows every idiosyncrasy; his calm hands are paired with a horse bred for bottomless ground and relentless pace.

Yet the narrative heartbeat is Willow Mullins’ Ballyburn (5/1). By Flemensfirth, sired for staying, he packs hot Novice form from 2024: a 13-length jaw-dropper in the Gallagher; Irish Arkle success, then a second in the Turners that spoke to raw toughness.

His 2025 saw a bounce between codes, but his strike rate—four wins from five completed runs—screams reliability. If Mullins judges the stamina reserves correctly, we may be watching a new divisional overlord emerge.

Gold Cup

Inothewayurthinkin (7/2) wears the underdog’s crown. Last March’s six-length splaying of Cheltenham’s finest was as clinical as it was poetic: a supplementary entry who took his opportunity, exploded clear at the top of the hill—and in the process, took the roof off for owner JP McManus.

His pathway—Kim Muir fourth after being 29 lengths adrift in 2024, then an eight-length romp at Aintree—signals a horse still on the rapid ascent, still learning what’s possible.

The old order, however, refuses to bow. Galopin Des Champs (5/1)—177 rated, dual champion, pride of Closutton—was forced off the Best Mate/Arkle path by that six-length defeat by Inothewayurthinkin.

But even with that scar, his CV bulges: Irish Gold Cup hat-trick (13L and 7L the margin in latest wins), crushing Punchestown comeback (22L), and a stable that knows how to course-manage champions.

He has everything—grit, gears, the guiding hand of Townend—to make history.

Legacies are not handed out; they’re earned. For Galopin, immortality is still on the table.