Cheltenham Festival 2027 ante-post guides
Updated 21 October 2026. Ante-post markets move a lot before March, so we refresh this guide after the key trials.
The Champion Hurdle is the two-mile hurdling championship and the feature race on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival. Lossiemouth, last year's impressive winner, heads the early market at around 5/2, with a big gap to the rest. Several of the chasing pack, including Supreme winner Old Park Star, could go novice chasing instead, so the market is likely to change a lot before March.
She ticks the big boxes: a proven Cheltenham champion with a perfect Festival record, and she's coming off a win, which nine of the last 10 winners were. Mares have won five of the last seven runnings and favourites have a strong record, so her age is the only real concern, and her closest rivals from last season may well be going over fences.
| 8 of the last 10 winners were aged 6 or 7 | Seven-year-olds won five times and six-year-olds three times; Espoir D'Allen (5, in 2019) and Honeysuckle (8, in 2022) are the exceptions, and no horse aged 9 or older has won in this period. |
| 9 of the last 10 winners won last time out | The only exception was Lossiemouth in 2026, who arrived after finishing second to Brighterdaysahead in the Irish Champion Hurdle. |
| 7 of the last 10 favourites won | The beaten favourites were Yanworth (2017), Apple's Jade (2019) and Constitution Hill, who fell at 1/2 in 2025. |
| Mares have won 5 of the last 7 renewals | Epatante (2020), Honeysuckle (2021 and 2022), Golden Ace (2025) and Lossiemouth (2026) all used the 7lb mares' allowance. |
| Nicky Henderson has trained 4 of the last 10 winners | Buveur D'Air (twice), Epatante and Constitution Hill won for him, while Willie Mullins and Henry de Bromhead have two wins each, and the 10 renewals split evenly between British and Irish stables. |
| 7 of the last 10 winners started at 5/1 or shorter | The big shocks were Espoir D'Allen at 16/1 in 2019 and Golden Ace at 25/1 in 2025, when both the favourite and the leader at the last fell. |
| Only 2 of 6 returning champions have kept their crown | Buveur D'Air (2018) and Honeysuckle (2022) repeated, but Buveur D'Air fell in 2019, Epatante was third in 2021, State Man fell at the last in 2025 and Golden Ace finished fifth in 2026. |
| 4 of the last 5 winners were officially rated 171 or higher | This one covers 2022 to 2026 only, as our data has no ratings for earlier years; Golden Ace (151) in 2025 is the outlier. |
She won last season's race by six and a half lengths at 7/5 and then took the Punchestown Champion Hurdle, and she's now four from four at the Cheltenham Festival. She also won the Morgiana and December Hurdles last term, so she has the strongest form in the division.
Against: She'll be 8 next March, and only one of the last 10 winners was that old; she was also beaten by Brighterdaysahead at Leopardstown in February.
He won two Grade 1 novice hurdles last spring, the Turners at Cheltenham and the Champion Novice Hurdle at Punchestown, and he'll be 7, the age that's produced the most recent winners.
Against: His big wins came over two and a half miles, he was rated only 150 last season, and connections have talked about sending him chasing.
She's the only horse to beat Lossiemouth last season, in the Irish Champion Hurdle, and she followed her second at Cheltenham by winning the Aintree Hurdle off a rating of 172.
Against: Gordon Elliott said in April that she would probably go chasing this season, so she may not run in this race.
He won the Unibet Hurdle on Cheltenham's Trials Day in January, finished third in the Champion Hurdle and then ran second in the Aintree Hurdle.
Against: He'll be 8, he fell in the Fighting Fifth last season, and he was outpaced from two out at Cheltenham last March.
He improved fast last season, winning the Greatwood over this course and trip and then the Kingwell, and he was going into third in the Champion Hurdle when a bad mistake at the last stopped him.
Against: He ran off 157 in last year's race, well below the usual winning standard, and he still has a lot to find with Lossiemouth.
He won this race in 2024, was clear when falling at the last in 2025, and then won the Punchestown Champion Hurdle that May.
Against: He missed the whole of last season through injury and will be 10 next March, while no winner in the last 10 years was older than 8.
Prices are a rough guide to the ante-post market when this guide was updated, not an offer.
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