Of course, the Cheltenham Festival is shaped around the four, key ‘showpiece’ races, culminating with the ‘Blue Riband’ event, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, on the fourth and final day. However, those races, and the other Graded and Listed events staged throughout the week, are interpersed with a series of notoriously competitive handicaps, of which the County Hurdle is arguably the most impenetrable of all.
Historically the ‘getting-out stakes’ – it was, until 2009, the final race of the Festival – the County Hurdle has lost none of its allure, as a betting medium, for being rescheduled ahead of the Cheltenham Gold Cup, as the second race on day four. Willie Mullins, the most successful trainer in the history of the Cheltenham Festival, has been the man to follow in recent years, with five winners in the last ten runnings. Indeed, Mullins was reponsible for the only winning favourite in the last decade, State Man in 2022, but with winners at 33/1 (three times), 25/1, 20/1 and 12/1 (twice) in the same period, the County Hurdle remains, largely, a race for the bookmakers.
Unsurprisingly, the bookmakers bet 7/1 the field, ante-post, which brings in McLaurey, owned by J.P. McManus and trained by Emmet Mullins, who won a valuable Listed handicap at Leopardstown in early February. Salvador Mundi, who finished sixth in the Triumph Hurdle at the 2024 Cheltenham Festival, is the shortest-priced of Mullins’ entries, at 9/1, while, at longer cheltenham festival betting odds, handicap debutante Celtic Dino (16/1), trained by Sam Thomas, makes no little appeal for the home team.
Cheltenham Festival 2025 Free Bet Offer: https://blog.betway.com/horse-racing/countdown-to-cheltenham-earn-over-pound100-in-free-bets-1/