Cheltenham festival 2026: news, tips, previews and more on Gold Cup day – live
Key events
Spillane’s Tower out of the Gold Cup
News: despite the 10mm rain overnight and the official going being good to soft, soft in places, the trainer Jimmy Mangan has decided there’s not enough juice in the ground for his horse Spillane’s Tower to run. Yesterday another Irish handler Willie Mullins pulled Fact To File out of the big race as he considered the ground at Cheltenham hadn’t got enough ease in it.
Preamble
Greg Wood
Good morning from Cheltenham on the final day of the 2026 festival meeting, on what could be one of the most memorable days here for many a year if Harry Redknapp’s unbeaten chaser, The Jukebox Man, could give his popular and high-profile owner the win in the chasing’s championship race: the Gold Cup.
The Jukebox Man is one of three horses that were involved in a blanket finish to the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day – Jango Baie and Gaelic Warrior are the others – that are currently vying for favouritism for the day’s feature race. After plenty of rain overnight, meanwhile, support is also beginning to develop behind Haiti Couleurs, the Welsh Grand National winner, whose stamina is guaranteed.
Jon Pullin, the clerk of the course, reported this morning that the going at Cheltenham is now good-to-soft, soft in places on the chase track, after 10mm of rain overnight, and it is soft, good-to-soft in places on the hurdles course.
Pullin was also a guest on ITV Racing’s The Opening Show programme this morning, responding to criticism of the ground on Thursday by Willie Mullins, the most successful trainer in festival history. Mullins suggested that the track had not put on enough water earlier in the week after scratching Fact To File, the favourite and defending champion, from Thursday’s Ryanair Chase.
“It was disappointing for everyone that Fact To File didn’t run, Pullin said. “As far as the ground was concerned, it was good, good-to-soft in places, and we did 4mm of irrigation on Wednesday night into Thursday. It was safe ground as we wanted and we always knew we were going to get the rain we got last night.”
A subplot on today’s card, meanwhile, is that the Prestbury Cup is still in the balance, for the first time in a decade, with Ireland on 11 wins and the home team having notched 10.
The Irish have blitzed through the Friday card several times in the past, however, and Paddy Power still make the visitors a 1-6 chance to end the week in front, while a 14-14 tie is a 5-1 shot and the hosts are 9-1.
The action on what is now the second-biggest betting day of the year behind the Grand National will be off and running at 1.20pm GMT with the Triumph Hurdle, where Adam Nicol’s Minella Study, trained on the beach in the north-east of England, will look to get the British bandwagon rolling. And, as ever, every snippet of news worth knowing, plus results, gambles and more, will be here on the blog as the day unfolds.
