Cross Country Chase Betting Preview – Cheltenham Day 2 Tips (2025)

The Cross Country Chase is the fourth race on Day 2 of the 2025 Cheltenham Festival and 16 runners have been declared for one of the biggest horse racing betting heats of the season.

We’ve known the early entries for the Cross Country Chase for some time now but decisions have been made and all eyes will be on Prestbury Park on Wednesday afternoon.

Here, we look at some of the leading players in the Cheltenham odds for this year’s race, with a Cross Country Chase selection ahead of the 2025 renewal.

The Glenfarclas Cross Country Handicap Chase is a really popular race amongst punters since being introduced to the Cheltenham Festival in 2005. It is a great spectacle, due to the horses racing around the centre of track and finishing down the home straight.

Trained by Gavin Cromwell, STUMPTOWN went agonisingly close to securing a Festival win when narrowly denied by Angels Dawn in the 2023 Kim Muir.

He heads to Cheltenham with his best chance yet according to the punters out there, and he’s the 5-2 clear favourite to land the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase.

Stumptown produced a powerful effort to land the Glenfarclas Crystal Cup Cross Country Handicap Chase at Cheltenham’s December meeting and he’s now become a dab hand in this sphere, winning his last three cross country events.

While a Festival win is top of Stumptown’s agenda, a tilt at the Grand National is also on the radar.

Given all these factors, it’s extremely difficult to imagine him not finishing in one the podium spots on Wednesday.

Veteran Galvin won the National Hunt Chase and the Savills Chase in 2021, and was narrowly beaten by Delta Work in this race two years ago. The horse remains a class act and can still hold his own at the top level.

Last season he finished fourth in the Grand National behind I Am Maximus, and has only run once since, suffering a narrow defeat in the American Grand National at Far Hills last October. Again, you cannot see Galvin not being involved in the closing stages of this cross country final.

Now that this race is a handicap, Busselton’s mark of 10st 5lb looks like an absolute gift for Joseph O’Brien’s eight-year-old, and he ran an eye-catching race behind Stumptown in December.

A little run out in the Boyne Hurdle last month will have been the perfect prep for this 3m5½f helter-skelter.

The application of first-time headgear seemed to spark a resurgence in form from Gavin Cromwell’s Vanillier in the P.P. Hogan Memorial Cross Country Chase at Punchestown.

The 2023 Grand National runner-up had been struggling to be involved in any of his starts this season, until a simple accessory did the trick. Connections will be hoping they work the oracle again at The Festival.

Sam Thomas’ Iwiildoit is an interesting late recruit to the cross country sphere, and if he takes to it he could certainly outrun his 25/1 odds.

The former Welsh National winner, ran a stormer to be second in that race again this season, and followed that up with a bold show in Haydock’s Peter Marsh Chase. He certainly won’t be left wanting for stamina.

If you’re brave enough to take a chance on David Cottin’s Iceo Madrik, then just be aware that on his five previous starts in Britain he’s basically downed tools every time and refuses to show any of his excellent French form.

SELECTION: STUMPTOWN