The Cheltenham Festival is the biggest week in jump racing, bar none. For four days every March, the best horses, trainers and jockeys on the planet descend on Prestbury Park, and what happens there shapes how we remember the entire season, from championship performances to the early Cheltenham Festival bet markets that begin to take shape long before the tapes go up.
Cheltenham 2026 is shaping up to follow the usual format, but there are already some massive storylines building and rivalries that could define the week.
Dates and daily structure
Cheltenham 2026 runs from Tuesday 10 March to Friday 13 March, with four days of racing and seven races on each card. Like always, the meeting builds through the week before everything comes down to the Gold Cup on Friday afternoon.
Racing starts at 1.30 pm each day and wraps up at 5.30 pm, a schedule that has become standard and gives each card time to breathe. The big race of the day always takes place late in the afternoon, making sure the Festival's defining moments hit when the atmosphere is best and the pressure is highest.
The four days at a glance
Tuesday kicks things off with Champion Day, headlined by the Champion Hurdle, where speed, accuracy and nerve are tested at the highest level, and where early Cheltenham tips often focus on proven Grade 1 performers who can handle pressure from the outset. It is a day that tends to suit established stars and sets the tone for everything that follows.
Wednesday brings a mix of top-class hurdles and seriously competitive handicaps, with the Queen Mother Champion Chase as the standout race. It's two miles of relentless pace and jumping that has to be spot on.
Thursday is St Patrick's Thursday, a day that often belongs to the Irish raiders and features the staying races where stamina gets put firmly under the microscope.
Friday is Gold Cup Day, where all roads lead to one race. The Festival's biggest prize is expected to go off at 4 pm, and by that point, nothing else matters.
Key names to look out for
As we get closer to Cheltenham, the usual suspects are dominating the conversation once again. Willie Mullins sits at the centre of the Festival narrative as always, with strength across every division and a track record of getting horses absolutely flying come mid-March. Gordon Elliott and Henry de Bromhead will both send strong teams over too, particularly in the staying races and handicaps where they've had plenty of success.
From Britain, Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls are likely to go with smaller but more carefully picked squads, while Dan Skelton's yard continues to be judged on whether it can turn strong domestic form into Grade 1 wins when it really counts at the Festival.
Who could win the Gold Cup?
At the time of writing, Galopin Des Champs and Inothewayurthinkin are joint-favourites at 6/1, despite both getting beaten over Christmas. Those defeats haven't shifted their standing one bit, which tells you how highly rated they still are at the top of the staying chase division.
Galopin Des Champs set the standard by winning back-to-back Gold Cups in 2023 and 2024, performances that made him the dominant stayer of his generation. That run came to an end in 2025 when Inothewayurthinkin beat him in a result that completely reshaped the division and set up a proper rivalry at the top.
For Willie Mullins, that defeat stung, not because there's any wider problem with the yard, but because expectations had grown so high after those two Gold Cup wins. This year, the aim is obvious – win the Gold Cup back. But the big question is whether Galopin Des Champs can reclaim his crown or if Inothewayurthinkin has taken over as the new boss of the division.
