2026 The St James's Place Festival Hunters' Chase Betting
The latter obliged in 2025 as a nine-year-old and may well return in March to defend his title. The horse was sent off as a 28/1 shot in the race twelve months ago, although it was a game effort on good to soft ground. In a close finish, the charge was able to fend off Its On The Line by a small margin, with plenty to recommend the horse here.
In November, there was a success at Dromahane on the point-to-point course, with the bookies also thinking that Con's Roc has a strong chance. On Boxing Day, the nine-year-old produced a strong effort at Down Royal to finish third out of sixteen runners. Its On The Line was actually the winner on that occasion, with the runner having previously obliged at Fairyhouse. It's On The Line has to be considered and Emmet Mullins trains a runner who is owned by JP McManus and the horse has collected lots of prize money during his career. We were taken by his outing at Punchestown in May where the 10/11 favourite won the Hunters' Chase on yielding ground and there could be more to come from the horse.
Panda Boy has been one of the market movers for this race, with the ten-year-old having landed successive wins this term. Trained by Martin Brassil, there was a January success at Thurles over three miles and one furlong. That came on yielding ground and was followed by a four-length victory in the Hunters Chase at Naas. Music Drive and Stattler are also likely to line up here. The former runs for Kelly Morgan who will hope that the nine-year-old can return to the track successfully after a long absence. There has previously been a Cheltenham success in May after finishing fourth in this very race twelve months ago.
2025 Festival Hunter Chase Tips
Its On The Line is the current favourite to win the St. James's Place Festival Challenge Cup Open Hunters' Chase, with Emmet Mullins training an eight-year-old who has produced some strong performances this term. The latest effort saw the horse finish third out of nine runners at Naas when flopping as the 4/7 favourite in the QuinnBet Hunters Chase.
Angels Dawn is a ten-year-old with bags of ability, with the horse bagging a victory in Dromahane at the end of December, with the runner falling in the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup Amateur Jockeys' Handicap Chase at the 2024 Cheltenham Festival although he was travelling well when tumbling down in the end.
Willitgoahead is a largely untested seven-year-old that could perform well based on his latest effort at Thurles. The horse was sent off as the 11/10 favourite when winning by three and a half lengths, with this coming after finishing second out of sixteen horses at Limerick at the end of December.
Sine Nomine is a nine-year-old who fell last time out although we shouldn’t overlook the fact that the horse was successful in this race twelve months ago. On that occasion, the charge was narrowly victorious when touching off Its On The Line, although the horse hasn’t been showing any kind of form this season which explains his bigger price.
Challenge Cup Open Hunters Chase FAQ
The Festival Hunter Chase is the penultimate race of the Cheltenham Festival, with this race taking place over three miles and two furlongs. This is one of the oldest horse races at the meeting, with this being inaugurated in 1904 and it’s a race where amateur jockeys take the rides.
The Festival Hunter Chase takes place at 4.40pm on Friday 14 March 2025, with Its On The Line potentially going off as favourite. The horse is the market leader and we might also see Angels Dawn, Big Interest and Winged Leader also battling it out.
There’s the chance to bet on the Festival Hunter Chase by signing up with an online betting site and then depositing money. You can generate a funded balance and stake money on selections that are set to run in this Cheltenham Festival race.
The favourites have a reasonable track record when it comes to this long distance encounter, with seven winners claiming the spoils in twenty-seven encounters. Sometimes you get market movers where there’s a lot of money for a particular horse winning the race.
Sine Nomine was the winner of the 2024 Festival Hunter Chase, with this being the first eight-year-old to claim a victory since 2013. Previously to this, there had been four ten-year-olds recording a win and that includes Billaway and Premier Magic.
There is generally a big field lining up in the Festival Hunter Chase and that means that each-way betting can be the way forward. You can secure a number of different places when it comes to this race, especially if there is a large volume of runners competing.
This isn’t always a race that is shown on terrestrial TV although you can log into your betting account and access the Bet and Watch service. This means you can sign up with one of our recommended bookmakers and bet on the action before enjoying live streams.
This is a handicap race at the Cheltenham Festival and it’s important to look at the weights and see whether there are benefits with going for a horse who has cheated the handicapper. Look for those horses who have performed well at Cheltenham previously.