By Callum Close
Racing’s elite will gather in Gloucestershire in under five weeks’ time when the 2025 Cheltenham Festival comes under starter’s orders.
The first race of 28 is Supreme Novices’ Hurdle on Tuesday, March 14.
It precedes four, action-packed days of illustrious racing in which Britain and Ireland’s most prestigious yards go head-to-head.
Each of the four days is headlined by a ‘feature race’ – day two is the Queen Mother Champion Chase.
This Grade One contest is run over two miles on Cheltenham’s old course and is open to horses aged five and older.
Thirteen fences are scheduled to be jumped in Britain’s leading minimum-distance chase.
The Field
This year’s renewal will see trainer Nicky Henderson’s Jonbon look to claim his 10th Grade One victory and his first Cheltenham Festival win.
Owner JP McManus’ nine-year-old is the 5/6 favourite but his two previous runs at the Festival resulted in defeat to star-stablemate Constitution Hill and returning Irish rival El Fabiolo, in the 2022 Supreme and 2023 Arkle respectively.
But he enhanced his claim for this year when he defeated two-time Champion Chase winner Energumene in the Clarence House Chase at Ascot
After the race, Henderson said: “He deserves one (Champion Chase).
“He had to miss it last year and one went wrong a year before, otherwise his record is pretty unblemished.”
Whilst Energumene will likely return to Cheltenham after missing last year, he is only 10/1 to make it a hat-trick of Champion Chase wins.
Gaelic Warrior
According to ante-post markets, Ireland’s chances are spearheaded by his stablemate and last year’s Arkle Chase winner Gaelic Warrior – the 5/1 second favourite for 11-time Festival Champion trainer Willie Mullins.
However, he is yet to win since last year’s Festival and his two runs this season have been placed efforts behind Joseph O’Brien’s Solness, who is 11/1 to win this race.
O’Brien’s horse was also defeated 25 lengths by Jonbon into fourth – at Sandown – in the Tingle Creek Chase.
Mullins also trains the returning El Fabiolo (10-1), who was pulled up last year despite being the very short-priced favourite.
Henderson’s horse has beaten El Fabiolo twice in three races – most recently, at Sandown, in last year’s Celebration Chase.
Festival bragging rights belong to the Irish-trained horse, however, with one previous meeting at Cheltenham going in favour of El Fabiolo, in the 2023 Arkle Chase.
Mullins acknowledged the ante-post favourite when he said: “Jonbon is going to be a tough nut to crack, but I feel we’ll have a chance.
“Cheltenham isn’t his favourite course so we’re hoping it might just edge our way.”
Other Betting Options
Elsewhere in the betting is French challenger Il Est Francais (11-2), who is set for his third run in Britain, after a win in 2023 Kauto Star and a second in the 2024 King George VI – both at Kempton.
His conqueror Banbridge is 25/1 with him likely to race later in the week.
2023 Supreme winner Marine National is also worth a mention at 10/1 for Irish owner/trainer Barry Connell.
A British victory would mean that the recent Irish domination of the race would end.
Since Politologue’s win in 2020 for Paul Nicholls, the last four winners have had Irish trainers.
If Jonbon wins it would also see the race go to Henderson for the first time since Altior won it in 2018 and 2019, consecutively.
READ MORE: Cheltenham Festival 2025: Champion Hurdle analysis and preview
