Cheltenham Festival
Can Inothewayurthinkin and co keep their Cheltenham crowns?
With the Cheltenham Festival less than a week away, anticipation is building over who will win the week’s biggest races.
Four of the five winners of last year’s championship races will be back to defend their crown, but how many will retain their victories from last year?
The championship races and last year’s winners
We have five championship races at the Cheltenham across the four days. Starting with the Champion Hurdle which headlines the action on the Tuesday. That was won by Golden Ace in dramatic fashion following State Man and Constitution Hill falling during the race.
The Wednesday sees the Queen Mother Champion Chase won by Marine Nationale last season. Unfortunately, he won’t be back to defend his crown this year after he was ruled out by trainer Barry Connell on Tuesday with an injury.
Thursday sees two Championship races, with the Ryanair Chase and Stayers’ Hurdle featuring on the same day. Fact To File won the Ryanair in style last season, whilst Bob Olinger caused somewhat of a shock in the Stayers’ Hurdle as he downed his fancied owner-mate Teahupoo.
The highlight of the week and the final Championship race of the Cheltenham Festival is the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Inothewayurthinkin won the race last season impressively for William Hill ambassador Gavin Cromwell beating the great Galopin Des Champs.
Number Of 2025 Cheltenham Championship Winners To Retain Their Crown In 2026 Betting:
Above is the betting on the defending Cheltenham Championship race winners to retain their races.
One is heavily favoured at 4/5, with the remaining four all looking to have good chances without all being very short across the board. Fact To File is by far the shortest of them all to win his respective race, priced up at 4/7 in the NRMB market, to win the Ryanair.
He was vastly impressive when winning the Irish Gold Cup at the Dublin Racing Festival which opened the option of the Gold Cup for him. He’s not been confirmed to 100% be going to either race but the Ryanair looks the likelier option. If he were to go, he would take all the beating and likely tick one of the previous winners off but he could still change his option.
None is next in the betting at 11/4. This would likely hinge on Fact To File losing whatever race he’d go to as he’d be the shortest of the returning winners in either race. He looks banker material, especially if going for the Ryanair, but there’s no guarantees at the Cheltenham Festival.
Two is next in the betting at 10/3. This would require one of, if not two if Fact To File didn’t, Golden Ace, Bob Olinger or Inothewayurthinkin to win. Golden Ace is 13/2 to repeat her victory from last year in the Champion Hurdle, Bob Olinger is slightly shorter at 6/1 whilst Inothewayurthinkin has seen significant support in recent days, he’s now 7/1.
At those prices, you’d probably be needing Fact To File to win to be onto a good bet but that looks likelier than not, so might be worth a bet if you fancy a couple of the remaining three.
Three is next in the betting at 25/1. You’d be in trouble if Fact To File wasn’t winning his respective assignment here, as you’d need the three other runners to all win for you which looks most unlikely going by current betting. Though, stranger things have happened.
Four winners at 750/1 is a big longshot, with all four runners required to pull off a rare feat and go back-to-back.
