Cheltenham festival 2025: Ballyburn shocked; The New Lion roars to win on day two – live
Key events
3.20 Cross Country Chase odds update
This next race is the festival’s most esoteric event, with runners tackling the cross-country course with its equestrian fences before a run around the main course. A conditions race since 2016 and once the playground of Tiger Roll, it has reverted to a handicap this year.
Greg Wood’s tip: A return to handicap conditions means that Stumptown, a cosy winner over course and distance at the December meeting, looks a fair bet to follow up from an 8lb higher mark.
Odds via Oddschecker:
Stumptown 3/1
Galvin 9/2
Mister Coffey 6/1
Busselton 13/2
Vanillier 15/2
The Goffer 17/2
Latenightpass 16/1
Iwilldoit 20/1
Chemical Energy 20/1
Coko Beach 28/1
Bar 33/1 – 16 Runners
Market movers via Oddspedia:
The Goffer (20/1 into 8/1)
Mister Coffey (7/1 into 6/1)
Iwilldoit (25/1 into 20/1)
Awaiting a full result, but ITV reports that Colonel Mustard, Beckett Rock and Beacon Edge finished fifth to seventh, with some bookies paying out on more places. Be Aware, the pre-race favourite, was travelling well but ended up in eighth.
Danny Mullins: “The snow this morning, I thought would help his chances – he hit his stride and finished strong. You don’t take any winners here for granted, it’s always a special feeling.” Jimmy Du Seuil finished second to Ballyburn in last year’s Novices Hurdle, but has enjoyed this year’s festival more than his stablemate.
Coral Cup: Jimmy De Seuil wins another for Mullins
Cheltenham 2.40
1 Jimmy Du Seuil (DE Mullins) 16-1
2 Impose Toi (N de Boinville) 13-2
3 Ballyadam (Rachael Blackmore) 16-1
4 Beat The Bat (Bryan Carver) 11-2
26 ran
Also: 3-1 Fav Be Aware
2.40 Coral Cup: Impose Toi moves to the front, with Jimmy Du Seuil alongside as they approach the last … Colonel Mustard is close but falling behind the leading two … it’s Jimmy De Seuil who wins it, another one for Willie Mullins.
2.40 Coral Cup: The pace picking up with Bunting taking up the lead from Al Gasparo … Be Aware starting to make a move, but Anna Bunina struggling.
2.40 Coral Cup: The grey Be Aware is in midfield as we approach the halfway mark; Captain Morgs, Beat The Bat and Anna Bunina are in the group behind the leaders.
2.40 Coral Cup: Al Gasparo has taken up the early running, with Might I and Bunting not far behind.
They’re off in the Coral Cup: Be Aware goes off as favourite, but Beat the Bat and Comfort Zone have closed the gap. It’s a first-time start, too.
This next race, the Coral Cup is something of a pin-sticker’s special, with 26 runners in a handicap contest. Darts and football fans may want a flutter on Bunting – owned by Brighton’s Tony Bloom – or there’s Colonel Mustard for the board game fans.
I also feel obliged to point out that Lossiemouth, an 80-1 shot, is not the same horse as yesterday’s winner. How is that possible? Well, racing doyen Tony Paley has explained they are bred in different countries – the Mares Hurdle winner is from France.
Greg Wood
Preview: 4.40 Grand Annual Challenge Cup Handicap Chase, 1m 7f 199yds
Once the Grade One horses have strutted their stuff over the two-mile course, it is time for the handicappers to have a go and this year’s Grand Annual has a typically long list of possibilities to ponder. Space does not really allow for a full consideration, but Unexpected Party is an obvious place to start as last year’s winner is just 6lb higher in the weights this time around and seems certain to go close. Gavin Cromwell has yet to register a winner at this year’s meeting but three of his five runners have made the frame and another, Now Is The Hour in yesterday’s National Hunt Chase, was still in with every chance when he fell two out. As a result, his three runners – My Mate Mozzie, Midnight It Is and The King Of PRs – are all worth a second look, while the runners for money this morning are Jpr One, from the Joe Tizzard stable, and Primoz, bidding to give the outstanding Lucinda Russell stable a second handicap chase win at the meeting after Myretown’s victory in the Ultima on Tuesday.
SELECTION: UNEXPECTED PARTY.
Coral Cup (2.40) odds update
Odds via Oddschecker:
Be Aware 4/1
Impose Toi 13/2
Beat The Bat 8/1
Comfort Zone 8/1
Bunting 9/1
Jipcot 12/1
Jimmy Du Seuil 14/1
Ballyadam 18/1
Sandor Clegane 20/1
Colonel Mustard 25/1
25/1 bar
Market movers via Oddspedia:
Be Aware (5/1 into 7/2)
Beat The Bat (16/1 into 8/1)
A correction: today has not seen the first snowfall at Cheltenham since 1974 – it is, according to ITV, the first time there’s been a centimetre of snow overnight since then. As a couple of you have pointed out, the 1987 Gold Cup was a winter wonderland:
Cheltenham 2.00
1 Lecky Watson (S F O’Keeffe) 20-1
2 Stellar Story (D J Gilligan) 22-1
3 Better Days Ahead (J W Kennedy) 13-2
7 ran
Also: 4-7 Fav Ballyburn, 11-1 Gorgeous Tom 4th
It’s a victory for Willie Mullins, although not the one that was expected. Sean O’Keeffe, who brought home 28-1 shot Lecky Watson. “I’m over the moon, when I got the ride on him I thought: he’s got a good chance.” He also dedicates the win to Michael O’Sullivan.
2.00 Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase: Over the third last, there’s an error from Dancing City – and Lecky Watson goes over the last three lengths clear! Stellar Story is challenging, but nobody will catch Lecky Watson here … Stellar Story may have just nicked second from Better Days Ahead.
2.00 Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase: Ballyburn still at the back but only four or five lengths behind – but now Quai De Bourbon falls, and gets in the favourite’s way. Dancing City, Better Days Ahead and Lecky Watson still the leading trio …
2.00 Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase: Ballyburn is almost down very early on, but Paul Townend stays in the saddle and keeps the hot favourite in touch at the back of the pack. Out in front are Lecky Watson, Dancing City and Better Days Ahead.
2.00 Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase: Ballyburn starts as an odds-on favourite for Willie Mullins, with Gordon Elliott’s Better Days Ahead next in the betting. Mullins has three other horses in this race, Elliott also has Lecky Watson, and the other name in the field is Henry De Bromhead’s Gorgeous Tom.
Historically, nine Gold Cup winners have emerged from our next race – the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase. This year, all seven runners are from Irish stables.
The snow that fell overnight is thought to be the most at the festival since 1974, although heavier flurries in 1978 forced a postponement, with the Gold Cup being raced in April.
Brown Advisory Novices’ Steeple Chase: odds update
Latest odds from Oddschecker:
Ballyburn 4/7
Dancing City 15/2
Better Days Ahead 9/1
Gorgeous Tom 12/1
Quai De Bourbon 14/1
Stellar Story 22/1
Lecky Watson 28/1
Market movers via Oddspedia:
Ballyburn (10/11 into 4/7)
Quai De Bourbon (20/1 into 14/1)
The New Lion has also broken racing’s “Challow Curse” – he’s the first winner of Newbury’s Challow Hurdle to follow up with a festival win in the same season since Wichita Lineman in 2006-07.
Jockey Harry Skelton, who is in the JP McManus silks and sporting a shiner on his right eye, says The New Lion “has got it all … you hope for [this] one time in your career. Ever since I rode this horse, I thought there was something different. This place is magic, it can give you everything.”
Turners Novices Hurdles: The New Lion wins thrilling three-way battle
Cheltenham 1.20
1 The New Lion (Harry Skelton) 3-1
2 The Yellow Clay (J W Kennedy) 5-2
3 Final Demand (P Townend) 6-4 Fav
11 ran
Also: 150-1 Forty Coats 4th
1.20 Turners Novices Hurdles The three favourites break clear and are almost neck and neck over the final fence … Final Demand is out of gas, can The Yellow Clay hold on? No, The New Lion finds an extra burst down the inside to win for the Skeltons!
1.20 Turners Novices Hurdles Potters Charm takes on Sixmilebridge with The Yellow Clay also moving up, and Final Demand and The New Lion both staying with the leading group …
1.20 Turners Novices Hurdles With six to go, Kel Histoire is pushed along and Supersundae is up alongside the leading trio …
1.20 Turners Novices Hurdles Sixmilebridge is the early leader with Potters Charm and the Yellow Clay in behind, the pace decent and every horse still in contention.
Turners Novices Hurdles kicks off the day’s action
Will they get away first time? No, they’re moving too fast for the starter – but rather than send them on the turn, a standing start is called. We’re off …
The bookies see this opening race as a three-way battle between Willie Mullins’ Final Demand, Dan Skelton’s The New Lion and Gordon Elliott’s The Yellow Clay. Let’s see …
After the opening day which saw wins for English, Scottish and Welsh stables, Great Britain leads Ireland 4-3 in the Prestbury Cup. Paul Townend is currently the leading jockey after securing two wins for Willie Mullins on Tuesday.
Market movers for the Turners Novices’ Hurdles via Oddspedia:
Greg Wood
Preview: 4.00 Queen Mother Champion Chase, Grade One, 2M
What was already an intriguing renewal of the two-mile chasing championship is becoming more interesting by the minute today as Jonbon, a 5-6 chance overnight, has drifted to even money in the face of support for Energumene, the winner of this race in 2022 and 2023, who is 6-1 (from 7-1). It might just be punters getting cold feet after a couple of odds-on reverses on Tuesday, but Jonbon’s nasty habit of getting beaten at the festival (and, in 20 career starts, only at Cheltenham) may also be playing on some backers’ minds. He did, after all, hand a convincing defeat to Energumene at Ascot in January, and his overall form has reached a new high this term.
Jonbon, in fact, arrives off the back of five straight wins, and nine in his last 10 starts, including seven at Grade One level. He has made his own running in a majority of those races, however, and seems unlikely to be gifted a soft lead here with Solness, a front-running Grade One winner on his last two outings, also in the field, while Marine Nationale, the Supreme winner two years ago, is another interesting runner for all that he has just one win over fences to his name, in a beginners’ event in December 2023.
SELECTION: JONBON.
KEY FORM:
Clarence House Chase, Ascot, 18 Jan 25 (Jonbon, Energumene).
Tingle Creek Chase, Sandown, 7 Dec 25 (Jonbon, Solness).
Dublin Chase, Leopardstown, 2 Feb 25 (Solness, Marine Nationale).
Queen Mother Champion Chase, Cheltenham 15 Mar 23 (Energumene).
The ground was on the good side of good-to-soft yesterday – but how will the overnight snowfall affect things? ITV’s Mick Fitzgerald doesn’t expect a drastic change.
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Good afternoon, Niall here picking up the baton from Tony. Let’s take a look at the latest odds for the day’s opening race, via Oddschecker. The Yellow Clay has been a big market mover this morning, with his odds cut from 13/2 to 3/1.
Final Demand 13/8
The New Lion 3/1
The Yellow Clay 3/1
Potters Charm 14/1
Sixmilebridge 22/1
Kel Histoire 33/1
Kiss Will 40/1
Supersundae 50/1
Kaid D’Authie 50/1
Kappa Jy Pyke 100/1
Forty Coats 125/1
Greg Wood
Preview: 2.40 The Coral Cup Handicap Hurdle, 2m 5f
This is always one of the fiercest betting heats of the week, and also one of the trickiest of all the races to solve, with just two successful favourites this century and winners at 50-1, 33-1 (twice) and 28-1 in the last dozen years alone. Dan Skelton fields the likely favourite in Be Aware as he attempts to complete a three-timer in this race, following victories for Langer Dan in each of the last two runnings, and while the old warrior in not in the field this time around, Henry de Bromhead’s Ballyadam, the three-and-a-half length runner-up 12 months ago, is back for another crack. Be Aware, a hold-up horse who is certain to get a strong pace to aim at, has run well in handicaps at Cheltenham and Ascot on his two previous starts this season, but his run-style means he will need some luck in running and punters are, frankly, spoiled for choice if they are looking for an alternative. JP McManus’s colours will be aboard a couple of very live runners in Impose Toi and Comfort Zone, while Tony Bloom, another owner who likes a punt, will have high hopes of Bunting, seventh home behind Majborough in last year’s Triumph Hurdle. Harry Fry’s Beat The Bat also seems sure to appreciate a return to this trip after an eye-catching run in the William Hill Handicap Hurdle last time and is possibly the pick of the prices at around 12-1.
SELECTION: BEAT THE BAT
Scratch this off your list of runners. No 16, Highland Haven, doesn’t go in the Weatherbys Champion Bumper (5.20pm), the last race of the day.
Greg Wood
Preview: 2.00 Brown Advisory Novice Chase, Grade One, 3m 110yds
The ninth race at this year’s festival and, in all likelihood, the fifth odds-on favourite, as Ballyburn has looked like a banker for this since a strong-staying win over an extended two-miles-and-five at Leopardstown last month. Willie Mullins’s runner was a convincing winner of the preceding race 12 months ago, suffered his only defeat over fences when attempting to give 6lb to Sir Gino over two miles at Kempton’s Christmas meeting, and is all but certain to improve for the step up to three miles on the basis of his performance last time out. He took off just behind the useful Croke Park at Leopardstown but was powering away at the line and will take all the beating today if his stamina kicks in again at the bottom of the hill. His six rivals include three stable companions – Dancing City, the second-favourite, Lecky Watson and Quai De Bourbon – who all boast useful form, and Quai De Bourbon in particular makes some each-way appeal with Patrick Mullins taking the reins with significant improvement likely from his latest start in a beginners’ event. For win purposes, though, it is very hard to see beyond the market leader.
SELECTION: BALLYBURN
KEY FORM:
Ladbrokes Novice Chase, Leopardstown, 2 Feb 25 (Ballyburn).
Daly Farrell Accountants Beginners’ Chase, Gowran Park, 23 Jan 25 (Quai De Bourbon).
Finlay Ford at Naas Novice Chase, Naas, 25 Jan 25 (Dancing City).
Our friends at Oddschecker have weighed in with some market movers ahad of the day’s racing:
Turners’ Novices Hurdle The Yellow Clay: 13/2 > 4/1
Brown Advisory Chase Quai De Bourbon 25/1 > 16/1
Coral Cup Impose Toi: 9/1 > 6/1; Samui: 40/1 > 25/1
Cross Country Chase The Goffer: 16/1 > 10/1
Champion Chase Energumene: 15/2 > 6/1
Grand Annual JPR One: 10/1 > 8/1; Primoz: 20/1 > 9/1
Champion Bumper Copacabana: 11/4 > 4/1
The snow has spoilt one very popular aspect of Wednesday’s racing, the trip to the centre of the track to watch the action in the Cross Country Chase.
Greg Wood
Preview: 1.20 Turners Novice Hurdle, Grade One, 2m 5f
Day two at Cheltenham 2025 kicks off in much the same way as day one: a warm favourite from the Willie Mullins yard and a big chance for the punters to get one step in front of the layers ahead of two even shorter-priced favourites in the afternoon’s two remaining Grade Ones.
Final Demand, unlike Kopek Des Bordes in Tuesday’s Supreme Novice Hurdle, is not expected to go off at odds-on and is currently trading at around 13-8, but he has a similar profile, having surged to the top of the betting after a thumping success at the Dublin Racing Festival. He won over two-and-three-quarter miles there and there was some speculation that he might step up to three for the Albert Bartlett on Friday, but he showed so much speed as he zipped clear in the straight at Leopardstown that dropping back a furlong will surely not cause him any issues. He is odds-against for a reason, though, and faces at least two very credible rivals in The New Lion and The Yellow Clay, who are both within 5lb of the favourite on Timeform ratings and also arrive with unbeaten records over hurdles to defend. The New Lion was a hugely stylish winner of the Grade One Challow Hurdle in December, while The Yellow Clay also has a Grade One already in the bag, having taken the Lawlor’s Of Naas Hurdle in early January. A slight doubt over The Yellow Clay is his ability to act on good-to-soft ground, although that has not deterred punters from wading in this morning and he is down to around 4-1 (from 7-1). Other live possibilities worth considering include Sixmilebridge and Potters Charm, first and second in the Classic Novice Hurdle here in January, but personally I’ll be sticking with Final Demand to back up his huge run at Leopardstown last month.
SELECTION: FINAL DEMAND.
KEY FORM:
Golden Cygnet Novice Hurdle, Leopardstown, 1 Feb 25 (Final Demand)
Lawlor’s Of Naas Novice Hurdle, Naas, 5 Jan 25 (The Yellow Clay, Supersundae).
Challow Novice Hurdle, Newbury 28 Dec 24 (The New Lion).
Classic Novice Hurdle, Cheltenham 25 Jan 25 (Sixmilebridge, Potters Charm)
Here’s the rundown of today’s action and we’ll be putting Greg Wood’s in-depth previews for all the races up here soon
1.20 The Turners Novices’ Hurdle Race (Grade 1)
2.00 The Brown Advisory Novices’ Steeple Chase
2.40 The Coral Cup Hurdle (A Handicap Hurdle Race) (Premier Handicap)
3.20 The Glenfarclas Cross Country Steeple Chase
4.00 The BetMGM Queen Mother Champion Steeple Chase (Grade 1)
4.40 The Debenhams Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Handicap Steeple Chase Challenge Cup (Premier Handicap)
5.20 The Weatherbys Champion Bumper (A Standard Open NH Flat Race) (Grade 1)
Did you know today was ‘Style Wednesday’? No neither did I. Anyway I have my blue John Smedley long-sleeved polo shirt on and a pair of vintage Levi’s so I hope that passes muster. I discovered that name for today in the details about the all-important going underfoot from the track which many were saying was bordering on good (ie faster ground than the general description) yesterday. The snow will have softened it up a bit and Jon Pullin, Cheltenham’s clerk of the course, said just now: “We had a covering of snow this morning but it turned to sleet as forecast and that should soon disappear. The going for today remains Good to Soft on the [main] Old Course and is Good to Soft, Good in places and Soft on the top loop on the Cross Country Course.”
Hello, and welcome to day two of the festival. And, as Cheltenham themselves point out, what a difference a day makes. When my son got in touch with me worried about whether the racing was going to be on I reminded him that I was there in 1987 when the delayed Gold Cup, won by The Thinker, took place after a sustained snowstorm in the middle of racing. The Sporting Life, where I worked in the 1990s, was still being sold back then and it was a pleasant surprise to see a printed edition of the paper, which closed in 1997, being handed out yesterday by Mike Tindall at Paddington station.
Preamble
Greg Wood
Good morning from Cheltenham, where the – somewhat surprising – weather news is that the racecourse received a light covering of snow earlier today. Low-ish temperatures had been predicted after a (relatively) mild day on Tuesday, but actual white stuff dropping out of the sky was not in many punters’ plans, and brought back memories of the festival in 2013 when frost covers were needed to save the meeting and the daytime thermometer hovered around zero all week.
There is no danger to today’s card, however, as the snow turned into sleet at around 8.30am, and temperatures are forecast to rise to around 7C by the time the field set off for the opener, the Turners Novice Hurdle, at 1.20pm.
There is a slight sense of déjà vu about the first two contests on the card, as both are novice events with a Willie Mullins-trained favourite. Mullins did not have things all his own way on Tuesday, however, as Majborough failed to live up to expectations in the Arkle Trophy, and Final Demand (Turners) in particular faces some very credible opposition in The New Lion – seen as a further Champion Hurdle contender by Dan Skelton, his trainer – and Gordon Elliott’s The Yellow Clay.
Ballyburn, in the Broadway Novice Chase, is the first of two likely odds-on shots on the day, although Jonbon, the market leader for the featured Queen Mother Champion Chase at 4.00pm, is a little uneasy in the betting this morning and is now 10-11 in places, with Marine Nationale, the second-favourite, edging closer at around 5-1.
Elsewhere on the card (all the tips for which are here), it is all about big fields and favourites rather closer to double-figure odds, with the Coral Cup Handicap in particular dangling a very enticing carrot for punters as they look to repair some of the damage from a series of unexpected results on Tuesday’s card. And it all wraps up with the Bumper, in which more than half the field is currently unbeaten and it is anyone’s guess in which order the five-strong Willie Mullins contingent will pass the post, never mind the rest of the field.
As ever, you can follow all the buildup and the action from the first flagfall to the last here on the blog, and there’s no need to reach for the winter woollies.
