Countdown to the 2026 Cheltenham Festival

If you're a follower of the sport of kings (that's surely a given since you're here), then there's few racing festivals that you'll be looking forward to that match the excitement of the Cheltenham Festival. Bundled up with so much history, rivalry and determination, it's both cemented and created a number of horses, jockeys and horse trainers into 'household name' territory. The likes of Badsworth Boy as a three time Champion Chase winner, Istabraq winning the Champion Hurdle three times and Pearlyman with two Queen Mother Champion Chase wins in the 1980s. With a focus on the Cheltenham Gold Cup we have the likes on Arkle and Best Mate as three time winners of this jewel in the crown race, and of course Galopin Des Champs had back to back wins in 2023 and 2024 and is in the running again in 2026 (currently at odds of 7-1). Current favourite is Fact to File at 4-1.

That's the beauty of the Cheltenham Festival really, each year this unmissable spectacle writes new stories that become part of the fabric of this four day event. This year the Festival takes place between Tuesday 10th March to Friday 13th March 2026. The Cheltenham Festival 2026 schedule can be found here and covers all four days of the event, along with race times, distance and details about each and every race at Cheltenham, to give you a feel of both what to expect on the day and some amazing moments from past years. 

Some greats of the Cheltenham Festival include the likes of Ruby Walsh with 59 Cheltenham wins, Rachael Blackmore, winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup on A Plus Tard along with other festival races, and trainer Willie Mullins with over 100 Festival wins. Be sure to tune in come 10th March and see where spellbinding moments the 2026 has in store for us!

The Fellow

Trained by François Doumen in Pau, southwestern France and ridden, for much of his career, by Polish-born jockey Adam Kondrat, The Fellow won the King George VI Chase at Kempton in 1991 and 1992. However, as far as the Cheltenham Festival is concerned, he is probably best remembered for winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup, at the fourth time of asking, in 1994. That said, anyone who backed him in the previous three renewals has good reason to remember that his defeats were attributable, at least according to some observers, to his jockey.

The Fellow made his first appearance in the 'Blue Riband' event in 1991, as a six-year-old, when has was sent off a largely unconsidered 28/1 outsider. However, despite Kondrat taking a wide route for the whole way and a bad mistake at the fifteenth fence, The Fellow was the only horse to make a race of it with eventual winner Garrison Savannah. Indeed, The Fellow 'sprinted' up the run-in, making up the better part of three lengths, but was denied by a short head.




On the back of that performance, and his subsequent win in the King George VI Chase, The Fellow was sent off 7/2 second favourite for his second attempt at the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1992. Kondrat rode a not entirely dissimilar race and, after a ding-dong battle with eventual winner and third, Cool Dawn and Docklands Express, on the run-in, The Fellow was headed in the final strides and denied by a short head for the second year running.




In 1993, The Fellow was sent off a heavily-backed 5/4 favourite for the Cheltenham Gold Cup, but could manage only fourth, beaten 9½ lengths, behind Jodami, having been outpaced from the top of the hill. He was back again, as a nine-year-old, in 1994, by which time it seemed his time had passed. However, sporting blinkers and ridden closer to the pace than had previously been the case, The Fellow was always travelling and jumping well and kept on strongly in the closing stages to beat Jodami by 1½ lengths and, finally, reward his connections' perseverance.

Mick Fitzgerald

 

Nowadays, Mick Fitzgerald is best known as a television presenter on ITV Racing but, in his younger days, was one of the most successful National Hunt jockeys of his generation. Before being forced into retirement after sustaining neck and knee damage in a fall from L'Ami in the 2008 Grand National, Fitzgerald rode 1,295 winners, including 14 at the Cheltenham Festival.

Fitzgerald was leading jockey at the Cheltenham Festival twice. On the first occasion, in 1999, he achieved a notable double on Call Equiname and See More Business, both trained by Paul Nicholls, in the Queen Mother Champion Chase and the Cheltenham Gold Cup, respectively. That year, he also won the Triumph Hurdle on Katarino and the now-defunct Cathcart Challenge Cup on Stormyfairweather, both for Nicky Henderson. On the second, in 2000, he won the Arkle Challenge Trophy on Tiutchev, the Festival Trophy on Marlborough, the Stayers' Hurdle on Bacchanal and the Cathcart Challenge Cup on Stormyfairweather again; all four winners were trained by Nicky Henderson.

Remarkably, despite a 15-year association with Nicky Henderson – who is, nowadays, the leading trainer in the history of the Champion Hurdle, with eight wins – Fiztgerald never won the two-mile hurdling championship. In fact, in twelve attempts, two third places, on Blue Royal in 2000 and Afsoun in 2007, were the best he could muster.

How many winners did Davy Russell ride at the Cheltenham Festival?

David 'Davy' Russell announced his retirement from the saddle, for the first time, at Thurles on December 18, 2022, having ridden Liberty Dance to victory for his long-time ally, Co. Meath trainer Gordon Elliott. However, when hapless stable jockey Jack Kennedy broke his leg, for the fifth time in his career, in a heavy fall at Naas on January 8, 2023, Russell was persuaded to return to the saddle on a short-term basis to solve an injury crisis at Cullentra House. Having done so, he endured a forgettable Cheltenham Festival in 2023, drawing a blank and standing himself down from his intended mount, Conflated, in the Cheletnham Gold Cup after being 'too sore to ride'. Russell eventually retired, for the second time, on Grand National Day 2023. On the horse racing predictions front, it was on the cards.

Champion National Hunt Jockey is his native Ireland in 2011/12, 2012/13 and 2017/18, Russell is probably best known to the wider racing public for his association with Tiger Roll – trained by Elliott and owned by his principal patron, Gigginstown House Stud – on whom he scored back-to-back victories in the Grand National in 2018 and 2019. Nevertheless, it should not be forgotten that, for much of his career, the Cheltenham Festival proved a happy hunting ground for the Corkman.

Russell rode his first Festival winner, Native Jack, trained by Philip Rothwell, in what is now the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase on March 14, 2006. Thereafter, with the exceptions of 2019, 2021, when he missed the Festival through injury, 2022 and 2023, he rode at least one winner at the March showpiece every year. In 2014, Russell won the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Lord Windermere, trained by Jim Culloty and, in 2018, won the Ruby Walsh Trophy, presented to the leading jockey at the Chetenham Festival, with four winners. All told, Russell rode 25 winners at the Cheltenham Festival, placing him joint-fourth on the all-time list, alongside Pat Taaffe and behind only Ruby |Walsh, Barry Geraghty and Tony McCoy. A record like this is a level above most. To take a different sport, in the football tips world, this would be like routnely striking gold with your selections over a period of time. Something we all hope for, but don't all have the knack of doing!

Katchit

 

The winner of just one of is 14 starts for Mick Channon, and two more for Alan King, on the Flat as a two- and three-year-old, Katchit proved something of a revelation when sent over hurdles at the start of the 2006/07 National Hunt season. Ridden by Robert 'Chocolate' Thornton, as he was in all bar two of his 24 hurdles starts, Katchit opened his account at the first time of asking, winning a juvenile novices' hurdle at Market Rasen by 9 lengths eased down. Indeed, over the next two seasons, he would win ten of his 13 starts, including twice at the Cheltenham Festival, finish second twice and third once.

Fresh from a 1¾-length victory over previous Grade One winner Good Bye Simon in the Finesse Juvenile Hurdle the previous January, Katchit was sent off 11/2 second-favourite for a competitive, 23-runner renewal of the Triumph Hurdle, over the same course and distance, on his first appearance at the Cheltenham Festival in 2007. Competitive on paper, that is, because Katchit drew clear in the closing stages for an impressive, 9-length victory.

The following season he returned to the Cheltenham Festival, attempting to become the first Triumph Hurdle winner since Kribensis, in 1990, to win the Champion Hurdle. After suffering defeats by Harchibald and Osana, both of whom reopposed, earlier in the season, Katchit was sent off at 10/1 joint-fifth choice of the market behind 2/1 favourite Sizing Europe. However, with the market leader suffering an injury in-running, on 4lb better terms, Katchit managed to reverse earlier International Hurdle form with Osana to the tune of 9 lengths, to win, all out, by a length. In so doing, he became the first five-year-old to win the Champion Hurdle since See You Then in 1985.