William Hill County Handicap Hurdle Betting Preview – Cheltenham Day 4 Tips (2025)

The County Hurdle is the second race on Day 4 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 County Hurdle for some time now but decisions have been made and all eyes will be on Prestbury Park on Friday afternoon.

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

The William County Hurdle is an extremely competitive handicap hurdle race, which is run on the fourth and final day of the Cheltenham Festival at 2.00pm.

The race itself has seen some almighty gambles landed down the years, with some stables cleverly able to stay one step ahead of the handicapper. Absurde proved to be ahead of his mark when scoring under Paul Townend for Willie Mullins twelve months ago and is well fancied again this year.

In fact, you’d be absolutely ABSURDE to leave the Willie Mullins globetrotter out of your County Hurdle deliberations this year.

The County Hurdle is as competitive a handicap as any at the Festival, but did you know that nine of the last ten County Hurdles have been won by either Willie Mullins or Dan Skelton? That’s quite a monopoly on the winners which further enhances the chances of last year’s winner.

Absurde figures among several Mullins entries this year and he will be bidding to become the first horse in the race’s history to win it twice.

Unseen on a racecourse since his close fifth in the Melbourne Cup, the seven-year-old has been handed a lovely weight by the handicapper, and he is a really strong each-way candidate.

Several horses made big impressions at the Dublin Racing Festival, not least among them the Emmet Mullins-trained McLaurey.

His one length win in what looked like a very competitive Listed handicap hurdle led to punters piling in for him for the County Hurdle.

JP McManus purchased him after romping home by eight lengths in an Irish point-to-point in November 2023 and connections have been biding their time with him. They were rewarded eventually when he won a maiden hurdle comfortably at Limerick on his penultimate start.

Emmet Mullins knows how to train handicap winners at the Cheltenham Festival and McLaurey could still have plenty more to show us yet.

Joseph O’Brien’s Lark In The Mornin spent most of last season as a strong favourite for the Boodles Juvenile Hurdle, only to take a huge walk in the market on the day of the race, but went on to defy that drift and won like a handicap good thing.

His one and only run this season saw him sent off as 11/2 joint-favourite for a handicap hurdle at Leopardstown Christmas Festival, but he could only manage seventh place. However it was the nature of his seventh place that has had some punters believing that the five-year-old is a plot job for the County Hurdle. Odds of 13/2 perhaps say they’re right?

SELECTION: ABSURDE (E/W)