Cheltenham Festival 2026: Start the Week with a Winner

The wait is finally over. The roar of the crowd, the electric atmosphere, and four days of the best jumps racing in the world are here again as the Cheltenham Festival 2026 gets underway. For punters, this is the week everything revolves around — the form study, the ante-post plays, and the search for those value winners that can make the meeting unforgettable.

As always during Festival week, we’ll be digging deep into every race and looking for the angles the market may have missed. If you want all of our bets throughout the Festival, the full package is available for £40. I can’t say fairer than that.

While nothing in racing is guaranteed, the record speaks for itself: we’ve finished with big profits in each of the last eight Festivals, and those who joined this one-off service were properly rewarded.

To get involved, everything needs to be sorted before 12:00 UK time – simply contact:[email protected]

And to kick things off, as promised, here’s one FREE pick for Day 1.

Race 1 BETTING Preview

In this race last year, the Irish dominated once again, and it would be no surprise if they were strongly involved in the finish here too.

Over the past fortnight, Willie Mullins has saddled 13 winners from 38 runners, which tells you his yard is operating at full throttle. With that in mind, it is fair to assume that the Irish maestro has his string in excellent form. For the record, over the past 12 years Mullins has won this race five times, including last year with Kopek Des Bordes.

This time around the top Irish trainer fields three of the twelve runners. According to the betting, the pick of them is Mighty Park, a five-year-old who created a good impression when winning on his hurdling debut by 38 lengths. The son of Walk In The Park clearly has plenty of ability, but he remains relatively inexperienced and he’s unlikely to get the luxury of a soft lead today.

If he hadn’t fallen at the last on his third start over hurdles, Talk The Talk would have been a perfect 4-from-4. The five-year-old, trained by Joseph O’Brien, is battle-hardened compared to some of these. However, while he’s tough and genuine, he had to dig deep to win a couple of those races and may now look a little more exposed.

Looking purely at the form book, El Cairos might appear slightly big at 8/1. That said, the Gordon Elliott-trained six-year-old won his most recent race on a tight rein and still looks open to improvement. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to see him finish in the top three.

The Dan Skelton team runs Mydaddypaddy, who looks a decent type but will need to improve significantly to win a race of this nature. The same comment applies to Leader D’Allier, the mount of Paul Townend.

Meanwhile, Sober Glory, trained by the Hobbs/White partnership, holds a solid rating of 148 from the assessor and will have the assistance of up-and-coming jockey Ben Jones. To cut a long story short, he’s entitled to run well.

The bottom five in the betting look more like also-rans, which leaves the door wide open for a horse who has been going about his business in impressive fashion — OLD PARK STAR.

When trained by Paul Nicholls, the son of Well Chosen didn’t look anything special in three bumper appearances. However, since switching to hurdles and joining the yard of Nicky Henderson, he has done nothing but impress.

In fact, he has won his three hurdle starts by an aggregate of 33 lengths, with the latest coming at Haydock Park Racecourse where he powered 18 lengths clear of Hurricane Pat.

What I really like about OLD PARK STAR is his hurdling technique and the way he travels through his races — two traits that are absolutely vital around Cheltenham.

Nicky Henderson has already won this race three times in the past decade, and if OLD PARK STAR continues his upward curve, he can add another to the collection.

OLD PARK STAR – 5/2

A progressive hurdler from a yard that knows exactly how to prepare one for this race. If he handles the Festival stage, he looks the one most likely to deliver a winning start to Cheltenham 2026.

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