Cheltenham Festival Best Bets: Each Way Options for 2026
The wait is almost over. The 2026 Cheltenham Festival is now only ten days away. This year’s build-up has featured its fair share of drama, with the Champion Hurdle, in particular, rarely out of the headlines. However, the absence of a star name or two won’t prevent the Cheltenham Festival from filling its annual position as the biggest and best punting party of the year.
As ever, four days of the finest jumps action lie in wait, with this year’s edition going under starters orders on Tuesday, 10 March, and concluding on the – unlucky for some – Friday, 13 March. With the final fields now beginning to take shape, we kick off our series of Cheltenham Festival previews by picking out a selection of solid value each-way options outside of the four championship-level events.
BetMGM Cup Handicap Hurdle – Wednesday, 2:40pm
BetMGM take over from Coral to sponsor the big handicap on Day 2. It may be worth betting that the new sponsor sees a new name added to the list of winning trainers. Olly Murphy has shot through the training ranks in recent years, but a winner at the Cheltenham Festival has so far proved elusive. The lightly raced eight-year-old, Indeevar Bleu, could be the horse to put that right.
On the back of a solid novice campaign, this son of Blue Bresil has emerged as an improved performer following a summer wind operation. Successful in two of three outings this season, his only defeat came when second to the Champion Hurdle-bound Tutti Quanti in the Gerry Feilden at Newbury. His best effort to date - by some margin - came when stepped up to 2m4f for the first time at Aintree on Boxing Day. He is up 9lb for that 5½l win, but powered right through the line and remains unexposed over this sort of trip.
- Recommended Bet - Indeevar Bleu each way @ 10/1 with BetVictor
Debenhams Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Challenge Trophy – Wednesday, 4:40pm
Dan Skelton has saddled Unexpected Party to finish first and second in the past two editions of this. The Champion Trainer elect looks to have another likely sort on his hands in the shape of Be Aware.
This grey gelding started as the 3/1 favourite for the Coral Cup in 2025 but found the combination of the step up to 2m5f and a wide trip a bridge too far. However, he is hard to fault over this sort of distance. Taking both hurdle and chase outings into account, his career form figures over 1m7½f to 2m½f read 1-2-2-2-3-2-2-2. Those three most recent runner-up finishes came in Graded class chase contests, when finishing behind horses of the calibre of July Flower and Arkle favourite, Lulamba. It looks interesting that Skelton chooses this moment to plunge him into a handicap chase for the first time, and he is fancied to at least keep his sequence of placed efforts going.
- Recommended Bet - Be Aware each way @ 8/1 with BetVictor
Ryanair Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle – Thursday, 1:20pm
The Willie Mullins-trained Bambino Fever and Gordon Elliott's Oldschool Outlaw dominate the market for the Day 3 opener and are hard to fault on form. Bambino Fever landed the Champion Bumper at the 2025 festival and won by 12 lengths last time out at Fairyhouse, while Oldschool Outlaw arrives seeking a four-timer and mastered Bambino Fever in December.
Likeable as the top two in the betting are, the one to carry our cash at a bigger price is the Henry de Bromhead-trained Echoing Silence. Sporting the Kenny Alexander silks made so famous by Honeysuckle, this daughter of Doyen kicked off her hurdling career with a six-length stroll at Cork in November. Stepping up on that to claim a Listed event at Punchestown in December, she has been kept off the track since – presumably to tackle this race as a fresh horse. That approach closely resembles the route taken by Air Of Entitlement, who caused a 16/1 shock when claiming the 2025 edition of this race for the de Bromhead operation. Twelve months on, it is worth betting that a similar result may be on the cards.
- Recommended Bet - Echoing Silence each way @ 12/1 with BetVictor
William Hill County Handicap Hurdle – Friday, 2:00pm
Continuing the theme of overpriced mares, our final selection comes in this fast and furious handicap on the closing day. Boasting a win over Tutti Quanti and a close second to the winning machine Wodhooh on her CV, Nicky Henderson’s Joyeuse is a seriously smart operator on her day. She is also proven in this sort of event, having flown home to claim the 2025 edition of the William Hill Hurdle at Newbury.
Joyeuse is without a win in six outings since - hence her attractive odds here - but has had her excuses. She simply failed to stay the 2m4f trip in the Grade 1 Mares Hurdle at this meeting and looked over the top for the season in her final outing at Leopardstown. Switched to fences for her first two starts of the 2025/26 season, she struggled with the larger obstacles. Her subsequent outing in a Premier Handicap Hurdle at Ascot was disappointing, but she bounced right back at the same track in January. Looking the most likely winner approaching the last in that Grade 2 contest, she lost all chance with a juddering error. However, that outing suggested she could be running into form at the most important time of the year. With headgear enlisted to improve her concentration, she looks an excellent each way option.
- Recommended Bet - Joyeuse each way @ 25/1 with BetVictor
A 50p each-way Lucky 15 on the above four selections at the recommended prices returns £23,005.70 if all four horses win and £326.20 if all four finish in the placed positions.
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