Your 2026 Cheltenham Festival Betting Guide for Day 3 Races

by Roy Brindley, 11 March 2026

It is day three of the 2026 Cheltenham Festival, meaning there are joint headlining races and a mixed bag of supporting handicaps and novice contests for punters to get stuck into.

Stayers Hurdle contender, Ma Shantou, has plenty of form positives.© Getty Images

Key Facts:

• The Stayers Hurdle and Ryanair Chase share top billing on Thursday’s Cheltenham card.
• Wodhooh and Fact To File are short-priced fancies.
• Emma Lavelle’s Ma Shantou ticks all the right boxes in the Stayers Hurdle.

The Stayers Hurdle and Ryanair Chase share headline honours on day three of the 2026 Cheltenham Festival. Five other exciting contests complete a card featuring novice contests, handicaps and a popular amateur jockeys’ race, the Kim Muir Challenge Cup.

Here, online-casinos.com horse racing betting expert, Roy Brindley, gives his views on the day’s Cheltenham action, pinpointing the merits of Wodhooh and Fact To File as a short-priced double.

1.20 pm – The Ryanair Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle

Introduced to the Festival roster in 2016, the Ryanair Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle was won by Willie Mullins’ trained mares for the first five years of its existence. The Brits did take the contest three times between 2022 and 2024, but hopes of the trophy staying at home in 2026 appear slim.

The last three winners were priced at 16/1, 10/1 and 16/1, while Eglantine Du Seuil was a 50/1 shot when winning in 2019. However, Irish runners fill the top five places in the 2026 betting – priced between even-money and 16/1 – and it is impossible to look beyond them.

Only five and six-year-olds have won this contest, meaning Charme De Faust can be cast aside. But this appears to be a match between last year’s Champion Bumper winner, Bambino Fever, and the four-timer chasing Oldschool Outlaw. Our preference is for the former.

2.00 pm – The Jack Richards Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase

Run for the first time in 2025, there is no historical form to help punters in the Jack Richards Novices’ Chase. The handicap race replaced the Grade 1 Golden Miller Novices’ Chase that was run over the same two-and-a-half-mile distance as a level-weights contest.

A maximum 20-runner field and a wide-open looking contest make this an impossible puzzle to solve. Sixmilebridge is chasing a four-timer, so he should be one to consider alongside Wingmen, who has been the subject of significant support in recent days.

Gold Dancer, winner of three of seven hurdle starts, might run a big race. The French-bred took time to settle when arriving from France and has a handy seven pounds taken off his allocated 11-stone 2-pound allocation by an amateur rider who has made recent visits to the winner’s enclosure.

2.40 pm – The Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle

First raced in 2008, the legendary mare Quevega, trained by Willie Mullins, took this contest six times in a row starting in 2009. Mullins has claimed this prize an additional five times, including last year’s renewal.

Favourites have won more than half of the 18 editions of this contest, and Wodhooh is expected to better that record on Thursday. Nine hurdle wins – and a second to day one Champion Hurdle winner, Lossiemouth – from ten starts underlines her class.

Officially rated four pounds superior to Jade De Grugy and nine pounds better than all other rivals, Wodhooh, 2024’s Martin Pipe Conditional Jockey Hurdle winner, rates as our ‘banker of the day’.

👍 Gordon Elliott on WODHOOH, per @AtTheRaces.

"Two miles around Cheltenham could be a bit sharp for her so I’d say she’ll go for the Mares’ Hurdle.

" She’s shown again how tough she is and I doubt she’ll run again before Cheltenham."pic.twitter.com/nyuP6EdUwp

— Road To Cheltenham (@RoadCheltenham) December 29, 2025

3.20 pm – The Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle

The season’s premier event for staying hurdlers is an excellent race for back-to-back and repeat winners. Both the 2025 winner, Bob Olinger and the 2024 champion, Teahupoo, are in Thursday’s field.

Neither are aged six or seven, which is a negative as nine of the last 12 winners were six or seven. It should be noted that the 2018, 2019, and 2020 Stayers’ Hurdle winners had all competed in the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle the previous season.

This makes Ma Shantou massively interesting. Emma Lavelle’s contender lined up in that contest in 2025. He is aged seven, is rapidly improving, and has winning course and distance form. Quoting 7/1, the UK’s online betting sites. may have underestimated this gelding’s chances, as he also hails from a stable that has won this race before.

4.00 pm – The Ryanair Chase

The Ryanair Chase was introduced in 2005 when the Festival moved from three days to four. Growing quickly in importance, the race produced a piece of history when Bryony Frost became the first female jockey to win a Grade 1 over jumps at Cheltenham, courtesy of Frodon in 2019.

French-breds are 12-for-12 in this two-mile, four-furlong contest, which will please Fact To File supporters. Bred in France, but never raced there, this JP McManus-owned and Willie Mullins-trained nine-year-old is way ahead of his rivals on official figures.

Runner-up in the 2023 Festival Bumper, the seven-time winner has scored at the past two Festivals and is clearly the best on official ratings. 8/11 odds to complete a Festival three-timer make Fact To File one of the day’s better bets.

4.40 pm – The Pertemps Network Final

This contest is raced over three miles, with quirky entry criteria requiring contenders to have finished in the first four in one of 21 Pertemps Series qualification races. They are staged at various racecourses, but glaringly, six of the last 10 winners ran in the Leopardstown qualifier over the Christmas period.

Gordon Elliott has trained the winner of the Pertemps Final three times since 2018, and he has had numerous placed horses. This year, he relies on Staffordshire Knott (16/1) and Minella Sixo (22/1).

However, three of the past four winners were priced 25/1, which makes Leopardstown Pertemps qualifier winner, Duke Silver, and runner-up, Yeah Man, eyecatchers at the very same odds.

5.20 pm – The Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup

This three-mile two-furlong chase is restricted to amateur riders. With neither Willie Mullins, Henry De Bromhead, nor Paul Nicholls having won the race – and Nicky Henderson’s last success coming in 2005 – this is normally a race that falls to one of the smaller stables.

The field size is normally large, and 24 horses will go to post on Thursday, but huge shocks are rare, with just two of the past 12 winners starting at odds greater than 12/1.

JP McManus has an outstanding record in this contest as an owner, but his 2026 entries hail from the yards of Nicky Henderson and Henry De Bromhead! Consequently, Herakles Westwood gets the vote.

Trained by Warren Greatrex, this nine-year-old, with three wins and two seconds from nine chase starts, looks a safe conveyance for an amateur rider, and he won over three miles at Cheltenham when last seen in action. 10/1 odds are a real bonus.

How Can I Watch the Final Day of Cheltenham 2026?

The third day of Cheltenham’s 2026 Festival will be broadcast live on ITV Racing, except for the 5.20 pm contest. It, and all races, can be watched live on the ITVX streaming service. Subscription channel Racing TV offers an alternative way to watch all seven races live on Thursday.