Paul Townend’s only handicap ride at Cheltenham is a 9/2 chance on Friday

We’re used to seeing Paul Townend mop up in the Grade 1 races at the Cheltenham Festival, as he won the Turners and the Champion Chase on Tuesday. He tends to leave the handicaps alone as a rule but never misses a ride in the County Hurdle.

Townend has ridden the winner in three of the last four years and his only handicap ride in the 2026 Festival comes in this race. Here we assess his chances of claiming a third successive victory. Check out our free tips page for daily content and our Day 4 Cheltenham selections are available to view now.

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2.00 Cheltenham

Karbau (9/2, bet365) won a bumper in France at the second attempt for Emmanuel Clayeux and was sent to Willie Mullins off the back of that comfortable success. He was a fair fourth in stable and hurdling debut at Naas in December 2024 but the clearly needed the run, despite going off as the favourite.

Connections decided to drop him back to two miles at Punchestown after that and he bolted up to score by 16 lengths in testing conditions. Heading to Cheltenham for the Supreme after that, he wasn’t quite ready and the occasion got the better of him.

It was a much improved performance from him when third at Aintree in a Grade 1 contest after that and he filled the same spot at the Punchestown Festival. The son of Cokoriko made his first start of the current campaign in the Limestone Lad Hurdle at Naas and he ran well to finish second by a length.

Improvement seems likely with the benefit of having that run under his belt and although 150 looks like a pretty lofty mark, it’s entirely possible that the best is yet to come.

14:00

Cheltenham

Karbau

Analysis

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