Cheltenham Festival
Cheltenham Festival 2026: Antepost Predictions & Tips
With the start of the Jumps season on the horizon, many will be gearing up to kick off their Cheltenham antepost betting.
William Hill already have markets live on many races from the big four days in March. Let’s see if there’s any antepost value in the current betting.
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Cheltenham Festival 2026
With the graded races priced up for the Cheltenham Festival next March, many will have already started building up their antepost portfolios.
With many of the year’s novice hurdlers or bumper horses yet to be seen, it’s best to wait until the season starts to develop to see these horses to get a proper idea of the form.
That said, horses that are returning from previous seasons where their level of form can be ascertained are worth looking at to see if there’s value in the antepost market.
Jonbon could be the value in the Champion Chase betting at a current price of 10/1.
Nicky Henderson’s nine-year-old is yet to strike at the Festival but has won at Cheltenham and has excuses for each performance.
Most recently, he was going well before making a bad mistake on the first circuit and dropping all the way through the field. That was a case of race over and it wouldn’t have been a surprise to see him pulled up as a result, however he finished off his race to good effect when tenderly handled by Nico de Boinville.
He bounced right back to form when winning the Melling Chase at Aintree in comfortable fashion, before falling short at Sandown in his final run of the season. It’s likely that he may have been feeling the effects of his season, so he can be forgiven that run.
If freshened up and back in full form, he’ll likely be back at Cheltenham in November for the Shloer Chase before trying to retain the Tingle Creek – if he is successful in doing so, the 10/1 won’t be around for long.
Fastorslow looks a big price at 20/1 for the Gold Cup.
He unseated in 2024’s Gold Cup, which was won by Galopin Des Champs, however he reversed that form when retaining the Punchestown Gold Cup.
It was a slightly more lowkey effort in the John Durkan the next time and was then out for the season and unable to make his Cheltenham engagement.
Prior to that defeat in Punchestown and his injury, he would’ve been far shorter than the 20/1 available for the 2025 Gold Cup and with the chasing division now looking as open as it has been in recent years, if he can return a clean bill of health and find that old level of form, he looks to be a bit of value at 20/1.
The double currently pays 230/1, that looks well worth a little go with the hope that come March, you could be sitting on a nice slip!
