Cheltenham Festival 2025 LIVE: Latest tips, racecards and results from Day One

Ultimate betting guide – with a name like that, how could you resist?

If somebody told you he’d have 103 winners, you’d think they need their head looking at!

So says AP McCoy on ITV Racing, but Willie Mullins has only gone and done it – the King of Cheltenham got his century of winners last year with some spare, and is only likely to add more to his tally this week.

In the Champion Hurdle, he has last year’s winner State Man and Winter Fog – but there’s no Lossiemouth, after last year’s winner of the Mares’ Hurdle was switched late on to return to that race, despite being tipped for today’s showpiece.

Kopek Des Bordes – P Townend – 8/11

Romeo Coolio – J.W Kennedy – 11/2

William Munny – Sean Flanagan – 13/2

Workahead – Rachael Blackmore – 13/2

Irancy – M.P Walsh – 14/1

Salvator Mundi – P.W Mullins – 16/1

Karbau – S.F O’Keefe – 40/1

Karniquet – D.E Mullins – 35/1

Sky Lord – D.J O’Keefe – 50/1

Funiculi Funicula – B Hayes – 66/1

Tutti Quanti – Harry Cobden – 100/1

Non-runner: Tripoli Flyer

Odds courtesy of Paddy Power correct at the time of publication

The 24-year-old Irish jockey died last month after a tragic accident mid-race, and with the racing world in mourning, the decision was taken to rename the first race – the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle – for the young talent.

Mail Sport’s DOMINIC KING paid tribute to the jockey in his thoughtful obituary – you should read this, below.

Not already a subscriber to Mail+? Tsk, tsk – you’ll miss DOMINIC KING on the inside scoop from inside the paddock every week.

And this week’s Cheltenham edition is a doozy. You can find out for yourselves, below.

Last year saw Willie Mullins-trained State Man claim ultimate honours in the Champion Hurdle after seeing off competition in gritty, unflashy style one year on from coming a far-off second to the towering Constitution Hill.

Then absent from the field, Constitution Hill is of course back, like all the best protagonists, to reclaim the top prize. But having tasted victory, could State Man pull off an upset and do so again?

The eight-year-old comes into the race off a strong win at the Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown last month.

And he certainly looked in high spirits last night…

That’s what the crack meterologists think – after yesterday’s showers, it looks like it will be dry at Prestbury Park all the way through until the final race of the day.

After last year’s torrents saw such extreme conditions one race was even postponed, that’s a hearty relief.

Pondering your selections for day one? Why not pick the brains of some of the sport’s finest, including Ruby Walsh and jockey Harry Cobden, as they run through their tips for each of the day’s races.

Ahead of this afternoon’s first race, Paul Scholes has tipped Kopek Des Bordes to take the spoils in the 2m hurdle, to the tune of a stake worth £2,500.

The Willie Mullins-trained prospect was a bumper debutant last season, but shone at the Tattersall Ireland Novice Hurdle last month – much like former winners of this race Samcro, Appreciate It, Sir Gerhard – and last year’s runaway winner Ballyburn.

Continuous improvement of the sport’s horse welfare remains paramount to its organisers, and this year, there’s fresh innovation in Gloucestershire.

For more information, have a read through our report, below.

Nicky Henderson’s Cheltenham Curse rolls on – after a number of high profile withdrawals last year, the yard has suffered the ‘dreadful news’ this morning that Triumph Hurdle hopeful Palladium got cast last night.

‘We have had quite a blow this morning when it appears that Palladium had got cast overnight and is quite sore this morning and we really can’t see how he can be fit to run in the JCB Triumph Hurdle,’ Henderson’s team wrote on X.

‘This is dreadful news and an unfair shock for the Bamford family as we seriously thought we had an outstanding chance on Friday. We are confident he will soon be able to resume training but he will require a few easy days.

‘He would be back in time for Aintree but I think in all probability he will now return to his flat career. He is a very good looking and talented young horse with a great temperament and he has a really bright future under both codes.’

Are the bookies due a bad day at the office in the opening stages of the week? Punters certainly seem to think so, with over 85,000 of them hoping that Paddy Power’s most popular accumulator pays off after the dust has settled on the first five races.

Favourites Kopek Des Bordes, Majborough, Lossiemouth, and Constitution Hill’s travails could lead to the bookie paying out a staggering eight-figure sum, in one of the biggest multiples in Cheltenham’s history.

The number of backers is also only set to rise – Paddy Power suggests it could be up to 250,000 by the time the starters line up at 1.20pm.

Odds courtesy of Paddy Power correct at the time of publication

Without further ado, here’s this year’s inaugural Cheltenham Breakfast – your guide by Mail Sport’s racing expert DOMINIC KING on all things Prestbury Park, served up every morning ahead of the day’s action.

Why not take a leaf through, below.

Ready for his close-up, it’s Nicky Henderson-trained Constitution Hill.

The eight-year-old claimed ultimate honours in the Champion Hurdle in 2023 and was widely tipped to make it two-in-two last year before disaster struck on the eve of the Festival, with an unsatisfactory blood sample coming on the heels of a shaky performance in training.

But Henderson has been pleased as punch to tell punters that his Champion Hurdle is back in rip-roaring form.

See for yourselves, below.

There’s no keeping a blue-blood from a racecourse, and keen equestrian – and Olympian – Zara Tindall is no different, back this year at the Festival after taking in a number of days in 2024’s iteration.

Tindall appears to have left behind her husband, former England rugby star Mike, mid-paper round: the ex-professional was snapped at Paddington Station greeting pundits Cheltenham-bound with special edition copies of Sporting Life.

… look no further – legendary jocket and racing pundit Ruby Walsh is here to provide his A to Z. In other words, taking you from Arkle Chase to… well, why not find out below?

To ensure you don’t miss a minute, here’s an overview of today’s race card. It’s Champions Day, named the day’s standout race, the Champion Hurdle at 4pm.

1.20pm Michael O’Sullivan Supreme Novices’ Hurdle

2.00pm Arkle Novices’ Chase

2.40pm Ultima Handicap Chase

3.20pm Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle Race

4.00pm Unibet Champion Hurdle

4.40pm Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle

5.20pm Princess Royal National Hunt Novices’ Chase

Don’t even think of picking your favourites without it – Jon Pullin, Cheltenham’s Clerk of the Course at Prestbury Park, is here to update us that the going ahead of the start of the race will be good to soft after 3.5mm rain yesterday afternoon and into the evening.

Good morning and welcome to Mail Sport’s live coverage of Cheltenham Festival – in all its glorious entirety – with the start of day one just hours away.

Ahead of the start of National Hunt’s racing showpiece event, capped off by Friday’s jewel in the crown, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, there’s just enough time to ponder some of the most anticipated questions in the sport: can Constitution Hill claw back his Champion Hurdle title after missing last year’s race? Can Galopin Des Champs make it back-to-back-to-back Gold Cup wins? Will the Willie Mullins machine ever so signs of slowing? And can Britain ever wrestle back control of the Prestbury Cup…

There’s just under two hours to go until curtain-up on the first race, the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, and I can already hear the stirrings of the roar – shall we get underway?