Tornado and Iceberg on radar in National Hunt Chase March 9, 2026 PLENTY of changes have been made in recent years to races at the Cheltenham Festival and none more so than with the conditions of the National Hunt Chase (5.20pm). Once a race restricted to amateur riders over four miles with no handicap band, it is now open to all jockeys, restricted to those horses rated [...]
Episode 73: Day One of the 2026 Cheltenham Festival March 9, 2026 Tom Marriott and Bill Esdaile spin through all seven races on the opening day of the 2026 Cheltenham Festival, with selections and analysis of each contest. Tom and Bill will be previewing the action from each day of the Festival this week, so keep an eye out for a new podcast daily! The Punter ‘The [...]
Townend reveals Bumper horse would be Hel of a ride March 8, 2026 STILL grinning from her maiden Cheltenham Festival success last year, Jody Townend sat down to reveal her and team Mullins’ plans for 2026. Younger sister to Willie Mullins’ stable jockey and 38-time Festival winning rider Paul, Townend, still an amateur, isn’t at the top of the pecking order at Closutton, but the 28-year-old has ridden [...]
Madara among Timeform’s best-handicapped horses heading to Cheltenham March 6, 2026 DAN SKELTON’s Madara has been named as one of the best-handicapped horses heading to next week’s Cheltenham Festival by Timeform. The ratings experts have the seven-year-old, who is due to run in Tuesday’s Sun Racing Plate Handicap Chase, six pounds clear of his official BHA mark of 140. The Rebecca Curtis-trained Ben Solo – seven [...]
Network to make a Fast return to winners’ enclosure March 6, 2026 SHA TIN in Hong Kong hosts a mixed bag of action on their 11-race programme on Sunday, with racing taking place on both turf and the all-weather. The feature race on the card, the Class One Essex Handicap (9.10am) over six furlongs promises to be a real humdinger. With eight former Group winners lining-up, FAST [...]
Vitam can prove too Powerful at Sha Tin March 6, 2026 WITH the BMW Hong Kong Derby only a couple of weeks away, but there are still chances for several gallopers on show at Sha Tin on Sunday to realise their owners’ dreams of making the line-up if posting convincing victories and gaining enough rating points. The likes of improving Natural Numbers, former Irish import Violet [...]
Brace for Eric to land Imperial Cup March 3, 2026 SANDOWN’s Imperial Cup (2.27pm) always marks the final Saturday before the Cheltenham Festival. The feature race has a £100,000 bonus in place for the winner if they can go on to win any race at Prestbury Park the following week. Langer Dan has got closest in recent years, finishing second to none other than Galopin [...]
Improving Wellington can make a splash at Cheltenham March 3, 2026 WE’RE just under a week out from the Cheltenham Festival and the anticipation for the big four days is almost at fever pitch. We’ve had seven ante-post swings so far and hopefully are sitting on some nice tickets heading into the Festival. For a final selection, I’m going to look at the newly named [...]
Dragon to fly to Storming Valley victory for Richards March 3, 2026 RACING at Happy Valley in Hong Kong returns with another nine-race programme on Wednesday which features the Kwoon Chung Bus Cup (1.15pm) over six furlongs. Bettors in the city can be forgiven from still reeling in surprise following the result of the Four-Year-Old Hong Kong Classic Cup, which was won by 20-1 shot Stormy Grove [...]
Have Faith in Hayes and Yeung to Star with a double March 3, 2026 A LIKELY change of tactics could pay rich dividends for the David Hayes-trained WITHALLMYFAITH, who lines up in the Sichuan Bipenggou Tourist Attractions Handicap (2.50pm) over the extended mile. The son of Mongolian Khan set a searching gallop from the off when collared near the line over the course and distance last month, eventually finishing [...]