As the month of March approaches, the heart rate of horse racing enthusiasts just starts to quicken.
The Cheltenham Festival is one of the key meetings in the National Hunt calendar, with the best of the best horses from the UK, Ireland and further afield locking horns for some of jump racing’s most prestigious prizes.
The 2025 edition gets underway on Tuesday March 11, so pundits and punters don’t have long to get their predictions in place. Happily, on that front, there are some earlier races in the schedule that are particularly pertinent when analysing how Cheltenham’s action might shape up.
Here’s what we’ve learned from the best of the qualifiers and prep races in 2024-25 so far.
The Dublin Racing Festival
Anyone with even a passing interest in horse racing will know that when it comes to the Cheltenham Festival, Irish trainers like Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott and Henry de Bromhead have been dominant for a number of years.
So the Dublin Racing Festival (DRF) at Leopardstown has long been an indicator of what might unfold at Cheltenham. Held in February, the horses get a perfectly-timed opportunity to boost their fitness and bolster their credentials ahead of the switch to Prestbury Park.
Arguably the flagship race of the DRF is the Irish Gold Cup, which has long been an excellent primer for the Cheltenham Gold Cup a matter of weeks earlier.
The winner of the Irish edition in 2025 was a certain Galopin Des Champs; the remarkable Mullins horse that won the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2023 and 2024.
He could become the first horse since the outstanding Best Mate to make it a hat-trick… in the latest ante post odds for the Cheltenham Festival, he is the red-hot favourite to achieve exactly that.
The Golden Cygnet Novice Hurdle is also another handy prep race at the DRF, with the last three winners of that particular renewal going on to place at the Cheltenham Festival in the subsequent March.
Connections of Final Demand, who was so impressive in winning the 2025 edition by some 12 lengths, will be hoping that trend continues.
If you’re looking for a prep race that has been a proving ground for Cheltenham Festival stars of the present and future, look no further than the J.P. Moriarty Novice Chase.
Held on day two of the Dublin Racing Festival, past winners include Galopin Des Champs, former Champion Hurdle victor Faugheen and two-time festival scorer Monkfish.
So what will Ballyburn, the 2025 J.P. Moriarty Novice Chase victor, go on to achieve at the Cheltenham Festival? He won the Gallagher Novices’ Hurdle at the meeting last year, with the step up to chasing this season going largely without a hitch.
Domestic Soil
Not to be outdone, the UK has its own races that have proven to be excellent lead-ins to success at the Cheltenham Festival.
The Fighting Fifth Hurdle, held at Newcastle towards the end of the calendar year, has identified many of the best hurdlers in the business.
Buveur d’Air and Epatante, both two-time winners of the Fighting Fifth, went on to prevail in the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, as did 2022 victor Constitution Hill.
Sir Gino, the 2024 Fighting Fifth champion, has been withdrawn from the Cheltenham Festival already due to injury, but those that ran gamely at Newcastle – including the runner-up Lump Sum – may deserve a place on the radar.
Cheltenham Racecourse has its own warm-up for the Festival courtesy of its January meeting. And that has proven to be a very valuable pipe-opener indeed.
The Cotswold Chase in particular is a fine race to win. Native River went on to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup after success in the Grade 2 renewal, while Frodon would prevail in the Ryanair Chase in the same year as his Cotswold glory.
The list of Cotswold Chase champions also includes Santini (Gold Cup runner-up), Chantry House (Marsh Novices’ Chase) and Smad Place (RSA Chase runner-up), so L’Homme Presse – the 2025 winner – has big shoes to fill at the Cheltenham Festival.
Perhaps the most instructive jewel in the crown comes courtesy of the Clarence House Chase. In recent times, four of its brilliant champions – Master Minded, Sprinter Sacre, Sire De Grugy and Altior – all won the Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.
So will the current favourite for that showpiece race, Jonbon, be able to back up January’s Clarence House win?
It will be fascinating to see if these time-served prep races once again come up trumps at the Cheltenham Festival.
