Four to follow from the 2026 Cheltenham Festival…

Another Cheltenham Festival slotted away in the form book… 

…and another dominated by the one and only Mr Willie Mullins!

Eight of the 28 races were pocketed by Willie Mullins… including seven of the 13 Grade 1 races…

He comfortably saddled the most runners over the four days… but that shouldn’t detract in any way from what was another outstanding four days for the King of Closutton… who ended the meeting with the following set of stats…

 8/74 | 11% S/R | +£55.62 BFLSP – W&P 19/74 | 26% S/R

…which is pretty decent in anyone’s book!

If you look only at his runners in the Non-Handicap races and those that ran in a Class 1 LTO and had 3 or 4 starts in the current season… you get the following…

7/16 | 44% S/R | +£38.60 BFLSP – W&P 11/16 | 69% S/R

…which suggests, unsurprisingly, he comes into the Festival with a well executed seasonal plan, allowing his top players to be bang ready to fire and get the job done on the big stage…

The worrying thing for everyone else is that there appears to be no sign of Mullins slowing down any time soon… it’s quite possible we are only in the middle stages of the Willie Mullins period of domination!!

Away from the Willie Mullins supremacy… I’ve just completed my ‘NTF Cheltenham Festival Notes‘, with members of the NTF Spring Festival Service picking up the Days 3 & 4 copy yesterday… all in all the notes ran to 23-pages this year… covering a whopping 77-horses… and below I’ve plucked four horses from those notes… one from each day of the meeting…

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Four to follow from the 2026 Cheltenham Festival…

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⬛⬜ HYLAND (N Henderson)

6th in the Ultima Handicap Chase – Tuesday 10th

Possibly worth marking this effort up a little on the bare form as he was scrappy 2-out and then pecked on landing over the last (and was slightly hampered as well)… none of that stopped him winning, but probably stopped him finishing closer than the 13.9L 6^th he did end up finishing…

…he was running under his Prime Conditions in the Ultima…

LH tracks over 2m4f+ | G/S or quicker | March-Nov = 7/14, 2p – all 7 career wins

…and he’s worth looking out for when getting similar conditions to attack…

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🟩🟦 GIVE IT TO ME OJ (G & J Moore)

18th in the BetMGM Cup Handicap Hurdle – Wednesday 11th

Will have needed this first run for 75-days, with his form off breaks of >30-days now reading… 0/4, 1p… he was also likely finding Class 1 level a shade too hot for him, and I’d have his National Hunt Prime Conditions (PC) as…

C2 level or less | DSLR 30 or less = 11113 (4/5, 1p – all 4 NH wins)

…he’s sliding back down the handicap at present (was dropped a further 2lbs to OR 138 off the back of this run) and he should start to become competitive again (especially when meeting with his PC)…

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🟨⬛ ONEWAYWEST (B Pauling)

14th in the Pertemps Final Handicap Hurdle – Thursday 12th

The change of tactics (Held-up instead of usual front-running/pace pushing) on ground that was likely too quick for him (now 0/4, 1p on Good ground) likely contributed to him never landing a blow at any stage of this… his mark of OR 129 is one he should still be competitive from and he’s worth looking out for under the following…

G/S or softer | Flat-Slightly Undulating tracks | Carrying 11-06 or less = 211222 (2/6, 4p – both career wins)

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🟫🟦 ANDASHAN (C Gordon)

9th in the Martin Pipe Handicap Hurdle – Friday 13th

Has done most of his racing on flatter tracks than Cheltenham and he does looked a horse that is better suited to the likes of Newbury and Kempton (Aintree would likely suit as well)… his form on Flat & Slightly Undulating tracks reads… 1152331 (3/7, 3p)… improving to… 123131 (3/6, 3p – all 3 career wins) away from Graded level… compared to his form on Undulating and Very Undulating tracks of… 3U9 (0/3, 1p)… and this was a better effort than it looked, given the track likely wasn’t ideal… he was kept on OR 133 off the back of this run and that’s a mark that should still be within range for the 6yo…

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📝 Full NTF 2026 Cheltenham Festival Notes…

The above four horses have been taken from the FULL NTF members guide… 

The guide stretches to a chunky 23-pages of info, stats, trends, pointers, angles and opinions, covering a whopping 77 horses… and includes…

✅ Prime Conditions for specific horses

✅ Next Time Out stats, pointers and angles for individual races

✅ Trainer Stats

✅ Sire Stats

✅ Owner Stats

And much more…

📩 Grab your copy HERE>>>

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Cheers – Ben (NTF)

p.s. Make sure you don’t miss out on any future NTF posts and offers by hooking up to the free mailing list HERE…

…I’ll have some Aintree Festival stats posted out to people on the free list at some point in the coming days…

Get all previous NTF Blog Posts HERE>>>

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