Cheltenham Festival 2025: Antepost Reaction To Grade 1 Chase Entries

The waiting was finally over come noon on Tuesday 7th January 2025, as the entries for the three principle Grade One chase races at the Cheltenham Festival were announced.

With a combined total of 79 entries (many dual by the way) over the three championship events, the antepost markets went into overdrive to form new “actual” books, rather than those based on speculation.

It’s pretty much what you see is what you get from now on in when it comes to having an early Cheltenham Festival bet, and also a great time to take advantage of NRNB on our Cheltenham betting markets.

Cheltenham Gold Cup Antepost Reaction

If anything the reaction to the 19 declared entries for the Gold Cup only went and strengthened the confidence punters have behind Galopin Des Champs landing a hat-trick of victories in the ultimate blue riband affair.

Our traders moved by marginally shaving the price of the Willie Mullins star down from even money to 4/6 and the cash has continued to arrive for him.

Of the others, Banbridge (8/1) fandom is understandably beginning to pick up a head of steam after his King George Victory, while last year’s Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase runner-up – Monty’s Star (14/1) is catching the eye of several shrewdies with his price is slowly shrinking as we edge towards March.

Queen Mother Champion Chase Antepost Reaction

There were no momentous moves at the top of the Queen Mother market with Nicky Henderson’s Jonbon still hovering steady around the 9/4 mark.

There appears to be a train of thought however, that rather than going for the Gold Cup or the Ryanair Chase, connections of Il Est Francais might opt for the two mile route.

It’s easy to envisage the French chasing star bowling along out in front, with his “catch me if you can” mentality, but is he a horse that would be suited to the unique track? Odds of 6/1 say he can go  wire to wire and some bettors may consider that price rather generous.

The clever money  however for this two mile championship race may well be for the Willie Mullins-trained El Fabiolo (6/1), who was tipped up by this blog page one month ago at odds of 8/1.

Ryanair Chase Antepost Reaction

Trainer Jimmy Mangan believes that a tilt at the Gold Cup would be a year too soon for his promising youngster Spillane’s Tower (5/1), and unsurprisingly a flood of money came for him when he received a Ryanair ticket instead.

If your French fancy, Il Est Francais takes up this option rather than one of the other two races he’s entered up for, then our traders will gladly lay you the horse racing odds of 4/1 about the Gallic chaser.

Also attracting some support in the betting for this 2m 4½f contest is Henry De Bromhead’s Jungle Boogie (14/1), with the smart money suggesting that the veteran will hold his best chance of a Cheltenham victory in this middle distance race.