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The highlight of the Cheltenham Festival, held on Gold Cup Friday, is the Cheltenham Gold Cup, a Group 1 National Hunt race renowned for showcasing the best horses and jockeys. The challenging race, which is over 3 miles and 2.5 furlongs, attracts top competitors from around the world and the prize pool often exceeds £600,000, making it a prestigious event in the horse racing world.
As the Cheltenham Festival approaches, the hype for one of the biggest horse racing events of the year is heating up, with punters and racing enthusiasts studying the different days of the Cheltenham Festival. OddsMonkey has guides for specific days, such as our Cheltenham Festival day one guide , but we’ve also created this guide for the event’s most prestigious race, the Gold Cup!
In typical OddsMonkey style, we’ll be looking at all the different aspects of the Gold Cup, from the basics of the game to the top picks and picks for the 2026 Cheltenham Festival!
What is the Cheltenham Gold Cup?
For most horse racing fans, the Cheltenham Gold Cup is one of the most prestigious trophies in all of horse racing, with the Grand National another standout event. The Cheltenham Gold Cup is held every year in Gloucestershire and is a Grade 1 National Hunt race, which means it is a horse racing event that allows only the best!
The Gold Cup is held on Friday, the final day of the annual Cheltenham Festival, and the competition is so highly regarded that an entire day is named after it, known as Gold Cup Friday. This event usually takes place around 16:00 (GMT) and is the most famous race of the Cheltenham Festival. The Gold Cup attracts some of the top horses, jockeys and trainers from around the world, and winning the race is considered one of the greatest achievements in the world of show jumping!
Cheltenham Gold Cup
The Cheltenham Gold Cup is raced over a distance of 3 miles and 2 1⁄2 furlongs, making it one of the longest races during the Cheltenham Festival. Featuring 22 fences, the race is a challenging event for both horses and jockeys as it requires skill, determination and endurance to perform well throughout the Gold Cup. If bettors would like to find out more about horse racing, we have a Horse Racing Betting Guide which contains information relevant to horse racing betting!
The Cheltenham Gold Cup usually has a maximum of 14 runners, although this number may vary from year to year as there may be some no-shows or pre-race withdrawals. The horses competing in the Cheltenham Gold Cup are considered to be the best in the UK and the world! There are a number of requirements that horses need to meet in order to qualify, as horses under the age of five cannot compete, while horses that have previously won or placed in Group 1 races may be considered for the Gold Cup.
Finally, the Gold Cup is one of the largest prize pools in horse racing. The total prize pool is often over £600,000, with the winner usually taking home around £350,000. This number typically varies from year to year, depending on sponsorship and other factors.
The Cheltenham Gold Cup is held on the new course at Cheltenham Racecourse. While the old course was better suited to faster horses that liked to stay close to the pace, the new course is a much more difficult test of endurance! If you’re new to horse racing betting but want to join in the excitement of the Cheltenham Festival, be sure to check out our beginner’s tips for Cheltenham Festival!
2026 Gold Cup Preview
As we look forward to the Gold Cup on Friday 13th March, there are a number of interesting options to choose from among the horses currently set to compete in the Gold Cup. Last year’s winner was Inothewayurthinkin, who defeated favorite Galopin Des Champs to achieve a historic three-game winning streak.
Inothewayurthinkin is priced at 6/1 this year and Galopin Des Champs is expected to regain the trophy at 11/2, making this horse the favorite for this year’s event! However, there are a number of other horses that could surprise the field, such as Jukebox Man and Gaelic Warrior, which are available at odds of 8/1 and 10/1 respectively.
Throughout the field we can see many other impressive horses such as Grangeclare West. The 2026 Gold Cup promises to be an exciting race, proving why it is one of the biggest horse racing events of the year.
If you’re looking for a preview of the different dates, check out our Cheltenham Festival Day 4 guide, which looks at the other races taking place in the Gold Cup on Friday.
OddsMonkey Cheltenham Festival
The Cheltenham Festival is just around the corner and there’s no better place than OddsMonkey to find out everything you need to know about horse racing, but more specifically, horse racing matched betting! OddsMonkey has guides on how to make matched bets and the different techniques bettors can use, you name it!
We also want to ensure punters using the OddsMonkey website get the most out of the Cheltenham Festival, which is why we’ve provided a guide to Cheltenham Festival betting offers that can be used when betting throughout the Cheltenham Festival!
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