Cheltenham Gold Cup Tips

Get our Cheltenham Gold Cup tips for the biggest race of the Festival!

Our tip for the Cheltenham Festival Gold Cup will be posted in the afternoon on Thursday, 12th March 2026, along with a full writeup.

The Gold Cup has been peerless in terms of competitive fields recently, and the 2026 edition promises no different with question marks over nearly all the key runners.

It's extremely tight at the top of the market and different bookmakers are favouring numerous different horses for favouritism.

Last year's winner Inothewayurthinkin isn't one of those heavily fancied. He's put in three extremely poor runs since his imposing victory here, finishing beaten 53 lengths, 41 lengths, and then a faller when well beaten last time out.

Gavin Cromwell will be hoping he comes alive back at Cheltenham where he has won both of his starts but his recent form is a big worry.

Dual winner Galopin Des Champs is now 10 years old, and has also disappointed this season. He's finished third in both his starts having been sent off as favourite and needs to prove that his best days aren't behind him.

The new comer on the block is Jango Baie for legendary trainer Nicky Henderson. A close fourth in a King George which turned into more of a sprint than he would have wanted, this Arkle winner is extremely unexposed and will attract a lot of attention.

The Jukebox Man has more experience at the three mile distance, and has taken a more standard approach to get here. He missed most of 2025 through injury, but put in a significant career best on Boxing Day at Kempton and is now unbeaten in his last four.

The Ricci colours must always be respected and Gaelic Warrior surprised everyone when missing last year's Festival altogether. He would be an exciting runner here, but with his stamina in question expect him to go for the Ryanair Chase instead, where he would be the obvious favourite.

In contrast, Haiti Couleurs has won both the Welsh and Irish Grand Nationals in the last twelve months, and clearly has stamina in abundance. He comfortably won the Denman Chase, having been sent off as odds on favourite, and will want as much rain as possible plus a hard gallop to make it as difficult as possible for his rivals.

The latest Cheltenham Gold Cup odds from BetMGM are:

• Fact To File - 7/2
• Jango Baie - 5/1
• The Jukebox Man - 5/1
• Gaelic Warrior - 5/1
• Haiti Couleurs - 7/1
• Galopin Des Champs - 8/1
• Spillanes Tower - 14/1
• Grey Dawning - 14/1
• Inothewayurthinkin - 14/1
• I Am Maximus - 25/1
• Affordable Fury - 25/1
• Nick Rockett - 33/1
• Impaire Et Passe - 33/1
• 40/1 bar

Last updated at 6pm on 17th February 2026.

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Check out the best offers below, updated daily:

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After two years of Galopin Des Champs domination, he was unsurprisingly well backed in the ring. Eventually sent off 8/13, the nearest challenger in the 9 runner field was Banbridge at 13/2, followed by Inothewayurthinking (15/2) and Monty's Star (8/1).

The race was a messy one from the start, with numerous horses making jumping mistakes and the heavy favourite having to be given some early encouragement, worrying backers.

Ahoy Senor led for the majority of the early stages, but fell at the open ditch 15. Numerous horses behind were badly hampered including Galopin Des Champs but he was able to quickly make up the ground and rejoin the pack.

As they turned towards the third from home, it looked like the race was his to lose. He loomed up outside Gentlemansgame, travelling beautfiully. He managed to hold the lead over the second last, but the tank emptied quickly after the last, and Inothewayurthinking flew over the last and quickly put the race to bed.

The Gold Cup is the highlight of the Cheltenham Festival, and our tipsters spend painstaking hours researching the race both before and during the Festival itself.

Given the stature of the race and the quality of the horses running, the majority of relevant form takes place at the biggest Festivals - think Kempton on Boxing Day, the Dublin Racing Festival, the Punchestown Festival, previous Cheltenham Festivals, and the like.

In short, it's very rare for a contender to come to this race not having run in multiple Grade 1 and Grade 2s, and these will have been watched and carefully analysed by our team. For our Cheltenham Gold Cup tips, they focus on key information for each horse such as:

• Ground suitability
• Jumping quality and any quirks
• Stamina (especially key for the Cheltenham hill)
• Race planning and targets

They'll take all this information, plus anything else they can gather from other sources such as trainer quotes, and use it to review the entire field, before making a decision on our tip.

The tip is then posted on this page, along with full reasoning.