Your In-Depth Gold Cup Day Cheltenham Festival Betting Guide

by Roy Brindley, 13 March 2026

It is the final day of the 2026 Cheltenham Festival, and it is also Friday the 13th. Will Gold Cup Day be a nightmare for the bookies or the punters?

The Jukebox Man and Gaelic Warrior, seen fighting out the finish of the King George VI Chase in December, meet again in the Gold Cup.© Getty Images

Key Facts:

• King George VI Chase winner, The Jukebox Man, can join the greats by winning the Gold Cup.
• Seven unbeaten horses will clash in the Triumph Hurdle.
• The fine run of winning favourites in the Mares’ Steeple Chase is expected to continue.

The fourth and final day of the 2026 Cheltenham Festival takes place on Friday. Featuring the most prestigious race in jump racing, the day is widely known as Gold Cup Day. A star-studded supporting card sees the Triumph Hurdle, County Hurdle, and Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle support the showpiece event.

Gold Cup Day is traditionally the most popular day of the Festival, and it is officially sold out across all enclosures. The crowds that do pack into Cheltenham Racecourse will be treated to one of the most competitive renewals of the sport’s blue riband chase in recent memory.

134 Runners, Seven Races and a Minefield!

Five of the day’s races feature 20-plus runners, making it a minefield for punters. Nevertheless, here our horse racing betting expert, Roy Brindley, uses historical stats to navigate race fans through each of the seven exciting contests.

1.20 pm – The JCB Triumph Hurdle

This four-year-old championship contest has attracted 20 runners. Seven contenders are unbeaten, and a strong case can be made for ten of the contenders. Willie Mullins has trained five of the last six Triumph Hurdle winners, and he is responsible for three of the top five in the current betting.

The Triumph was shaping as a good race for favourites, with five scoring during the past decade. It all went wrong in 2025 after Poniros entered the winner’s enclosure at 100/1. He, like nine of this year’s field, was trained by ‘that man’ Willie Mullins.

Mullins’ dominance and numerical superiority make it difficult to oppose him in the 2026 Triumph. However, hailing from the small Northumberland stables of Adam Nichol, Minella Study is a little overlooked and marginally overpriced by the UK’s betting sites.

Of the horses allocated a handicap mark, this former Irish flat racer comes out top, and he is unbeaten in three outings over hurdles. Minella Study’s most recent success came at Cheltenham in a Triumph Hurdle trial race where he won ‘readily’. There is enough to like to make him the each-way play here.

2.00 pm – The William Hill County Handicap Hurdle Race

The prices of recent winners underline the difficulty of finding the winner of this contest. They have had SPs of: 33/1, 11/4, 33/1, 11/2, 12/1, 33/1, 20/1 and 3/1. The only stat that stands out is the winner’s age. While five, six and eight-year-olds have been regular scorers, the last winning seven-year-old was in 2003!

24 runners priced between 6/1 and 66/1 demand that punters take a few shots at the board, or get creative with a bet in one of the match, place-only, or distance markets offered by the race sponsors.

Our best bet suggestions are Sinnatra and Tellherthename – both trained by Dan Skelton, who has a fine record in the race – Wilful, and Secret Squirrel. The latter is a striking specimen of a horse and is having his second run back following injury.

2.40 pm – The Mrs Paddy Power Mares’ Steeple Chase

Run for the first time in 2021 and replacing the Centenary Novices’ Handicap Chase on the Cheltenham Festival programme, this two-and-a-half miler has so far only been won by Irish-trained runners.

Four of the five winners have started as favourites. The highest-priced winner, at 3/1, was 2024’s scorer, Limerick Lace. The stats turn the attention to Dinoblue, who won this contest 12 months ago as the 6/4 favourite. She is 6/4 to score again on Friday.

Possessing a brilliant record of 10 wins and seven seconds from 19 chase starts, the nine-year-old mare has 12 pounds in hand of the second favourite, Panic Attack, on official ratings. As a result, Dinoblue gets our nap treatment.

3.20 pm – The Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle Race

10 of the past 12 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle winners were sent off at double-figure odds, 18 of the last 20 winners were aged six or seven, and favourites have a poor record in this level-weights contest.

In a contest truly dominated by Irish-trained horses, where seven of the top eight in the betting were last time out winners, Nostradamus would have a problem finding the winner here.

Spinningayarn gets the tentative vote as a ‘place only’ bet selection. Gordon Elliott’s mare has shown marked improvement in her three hurdle starts and appears custom-made for this step up to three miles.

4.00 pm – The Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup Steeple Chase

The most prestigious jumps race of the year and always the highlight of the week at the Festival, the Gold Cup is also one of the more competitive races at the 2026 Festival. Most runners fulfil the requisite criteria – being aged seven, eight or nine, a previous Grade-1 winner and with a victory during the current season.

The Jukebox Man has not been given the credit for his King George VI Chase victory over Christmas, where he accounted for Jango Baie and Gaelic Warrior. Owned by the popular FA Cup-winning football manager, Harry Redknapp, The Jukebox Man can take his chase record to five from five by taking the biggest prize of all.

4.40 pm – The Princess Royal Challenge Cup Open Hunters’ Steeple Chase

Run over the same course and distance as the Gold Cup, this contest is regularly called the “amateur Gold Cup”. There are no glaring stats. Two recent winners started on 66/1 odds. Two others were 13/8 favourites!

It’s On The Line has finished second in this contest for the past three seasons and, still only aged nine, cannot be ruled out. Stattler was a Festival winner in 2022 and ran in the following year’s Gold Cup, so his back-class could come into play.

Given there is plenty of deadwood in the field, these are our two against the probable favourite, and last year’s 28/1 winner, Wonderwall. At a double-digit price, the hattrick chasing Golden Son could run a big race for one of all-time training greats, Paul Nicholls.

5.20 pm – Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle

There has been just one winning favourite in the 17-year history of this 20-furlong 10-flight race for up-and-coming riders. The concluding race on the Festival card seemingly suits progressive horses, as 15 of the past 17 winners were aged five or six.

Course-winning form and a last-time-out victory can be considered to be a serious tick in any contender’s box. This leads us to East India Express, who ran in this race last year and won at Cheltenham on his next outing.

It’s Bilbo won on his most recent start, posting career-best figures. Having contested a few chase races earlier in the season, there is a possibility his handicap mark has been protected, and he has yet more to offer.