Cheltenham Festival 2025 Day 3

Cheltenham Festival Tips for Day 3 Races 2025

A dual feature day starts with the Turners Novices’ Chase, formerly known as the JLT and Marsh Novices’ Chase. In it’s eleven-year history, Ireland had enjoyed total domination of the race before winners from both Philip Hobbs and Nicky Henderson helped to stem the flow of winners from the Emerald Isle in 2019 and 2021. Barring a disaster that trend was certain to continue in 2022 with only four horses entered and all Irish trained, Bob Olinger eventually becoming the beneficiary of a bad mistake and fall at the last by the dominant Galopin Des Champs. In 2023, Great Britain managed to get another on the board thanks to Stage Star, and Dan Skelton’s Grey Dawning won the race in 2024.

Another relatively new race at the festival is the Dawn Run Novices’ Hurdle which takes place later on the card. Now in its ninth year, this race could be seen as an indictment for British horse racing in recent years with Ireland winning the the first six in a row. The man largely responsible for those was Willie Mullins who had won every single running of the race until Henry De Bromhead and Rachael Blackmore teamed up with Telmesomethinggirl who won impressively despite leaning left on the run in 2021. Harry Fry finally got one on the board for the Brits in 2022 with Love Envoi and Jamie Snowden managed to further improve that record with You Wear It Well putting in a brilliant performance to win unchallenged from the front. British trainer Jeremy Scott won the race in 2024 with Golden Ace.

The Ryanair Chase is always a tough racefor antepost punters, and after Protektorat’s surprise win in the race in 2024, we could be in for a very competitive renewal.

The Stayers’ Hurdle is a race where favourites had great success up until 2019 with five of the previous ten winners all heading the market. However, three of those are credited to the legendary Big Bucks and Paul Nicholls who trained him to an unbelievable four-timer between 2009 and 2012. That trend has been bucked slightly with winners returning at 12/1, 50/1 and 33/1 in the last few years but Teahupoo justified favouritism to win the race in 2024.

Three handicaps on the card are typically competitive, the Pertemps particularly given the qualifying process for running in the race. Amateur riders are once again in the spotlight for the Kim Muir, a race in which many will be looking towards the rides of the top amateur riders for clues. Then there is the Festival Plate, a really competitive contest.

Our Thursday Cheltenham tips will cover all these races in fantastic detail, so make sure to check out this page regularly for our latest predictions. If you’re looking for tips for other days please check back to the Cheltenham Festival homepage.

Cheltenham Festival 2025: Day 3 Races

• Turners Novices’ Chase (Grade 1)
• Pertemps Final Handicap Hurdle (Grade 3)
• Ryanair Chase (Grade 1)
• Stayers’ Hurdle (Grade 1)
• Plate Handicap Chase (Grade 3)
• Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle (Grade 2)
• Kim Muir Challenge Cup (Handicap)