Cheltenham Festival Gold Cup 2025 LIVE: Results, tips and latest updates

British Horseracing Authority starter Robbie Supple has defended existing procedures after a series of unsatisfactory starts at the Cheltenham Festival.

Tuesday’s Ultima Handicap Chase required three attempts to get underway while Wednesday’s Queen Mother Champion Chase had a standing start, a factor which Nico de Boinville felt had impacted on eventual second and hot favourite Jonbon’s chances.

There was further incident in the very first race on day three when Willie Mullins’ Maughreen whipped around as the runners were sent on their way at the second time of asking, putting paid to her chances.

After finishing second aboard Sixandahalf in the opening Ryanair Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle in which the Maughreen incident occurred, Keith Donoghue said: “I think the starters are trying to stay with the rules that they have when they have seven runners, but with 24 runners there, you’re not going to get them all to walk in in a line.

“I think they have to use their heads sometimes and just drop the flag and let them go when it looks reasonable enough.”

Horse racing legend Frankie Dettori, perhaps the world’s most famous jockey, has shockingly announced his is filing for bankruptcy, admitting he is “saddened and embarrassed by this outcome.”

Dettori has had ongoing issues with HMRC and revealed in a statement that he had been unsuccessful in his effort to resolve the financial difficulties he is in.

The official course conditions for today’s racing are Good to Soft.

That’s the same as earlier in the week and should make for some quick running.

BetVictor’s Sam Boswell gives the betting forecast for Day Four.

Speaking on the main market movers on Friday morning, Boswell said: “After three days of thrilling action it’s down to the final day of the Cheltenham Festival for punters to try and get one over on the bookmakers.

“Lots of hopes will likely lay with Galopin Des Champs in the Gold Cup and he’s been unsurprisingly solid in the betting.

“Favourites have been unreliable all week though and with that in mind they’re getting stuck into the bigger prices elsewhere this morning, with Blue Lemons being sliced from 33/1 into 11s for first race of the day, the Triumph Hurdle.

“Hansard is the big mover Gary & Josh Moore in the County Hurdle at 11/1 from 20/1, while Lucinda Russell’s Derryhassen Paddy, who is 8/1 from 14s, is popular in the Albert Bartlett betting.

“Fairly Famous is seemingly the pick in the Hunters’ Chase having been backed from 18/1 into 10/1, but Nurse Susan is by far the most eye-catching move of the day, with her price tumbling from 50/1 to 10/1 to land the Martin Pipe.”

The Cheltenham Festival is back, and neither snow nor rain will keep the horses from running. Races continue as we gear up for the weekend, with one of the most hotly anticipated races of the event coming in the shape of Friday evening’s Gold Cup, where Galopin Des Champs is eyeing up a history-making third title. He would be just the fifth horse to manage the feat.

Day three was not short of entertainment as Bob Olinger took an unlikely win in the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle and rank outsider Air Of Entitlement was first over the line in the day’s opening race.

Here are the latest odds for the opening race of Gold Cup day via Sky Bet:

• East India Dock (15/8)
• Lulamba (2/1)
• Hello Neighbour (11/2)
• Blue Lemons (17/2)
• Lady Vega Allen (12/1)
• Mondo Man (14/1)
• Gibbs Island (18/1)
• Larzac (25/1)
• Willy De Houelle (28/1)
• Sainte Lucie (33/1)
• Charlus (50/1)
• Too Bossy For Us (50/1)
• Pappano (80/1)
• Poniros (80/1)
• Place De La Nation (80/1)
• Lumiere Du Large (100/1)
• Opec (100/1)
• Marche D’aligre (125/1)

Harry Redknapp continued saying: “The atmosphere here is second to none. It’s amazing. People enjoying themselves, that’s what it’s about.

“I had a great night last night. I checked into the hotel on my own. Ruby Walsh and his wife was there. Everyone in the racing world.

“And there was some lovely Irish guys on the table next door to me. They were fantastic.

“They kept sending me over glasses of Barolo and whatever. They were as good as gold.”

Former football manager, Harry Redknapp, appeared as a guest on talkSPORT this morning.

He spoke about a horse he has running today called Yellow Card saying: “I’ve got Yellow Car today. It was interesting how I came to own this horse.

“Graeme McPherson, the trainer, rang me. I don’t know him that well. I’d met him a little while back.

“He rang up and said, ‘Harry, I’ve got a nice horse in the yard, it won at Doncaster the other week. Would you be interested? It’s called Yellow Car’.

“I said, ‘Not really. I’ve got a lot of horses at the moment, Graeme’. And I put the phone down.

“Suddenly, there was a knock at the door and it was the young girl who comes round to do a bit of tidying, a bit of cleaning, whatever, and she said, ‘Oh, Harry. Don’t look out in the drive. I’ve taken my car in for a service and look what they’ve given me. This little yellow car’.

“I thought, ‘This is an omen. Oh no, this has been sent from heaven’. So I’ve ended up going back on the phone and buying Yellow Car and he’s here today.”

Cheltenham Festival is the showpiece event of the jumping season, and one of the few times a year when horse racing breaks into the consciousness of the public outside hardcore fans.

Attendances top 200,000 each year, but since record-breaking numbers descended on Prestbury Park in 2022 for the first post-pandemic edition, the crowds have steadily declined – and this year even more seem set on staying away.

Long-term National Hunt fan Jack Hawthorne is swerving this year’s Festival, and he’s not the only one.

The atmosphere is building nicely at the course as spectators and horse racing fans arrive ahead of this afternoon’s festivities.