Race 2 · Champion Day · Tuesday, 10 March 2026 · ~2:10pm
Arkle Challenge Trophy Novices' Chase
Live betting odds comparison for the two-mile novice chasing championship — 1m 7f 199y · Grade 1 · Old Course
Live betting odds comparison for the two-mile novice chasing championship — 1m 7f 199y · Grade 1 · Old Course
Compare the latest odds from leading bookmakers for the Arkle Challenge Trophy. Updated as we approach Champion Day on 10 March 2026.
Leading racing analysts, journalists and tipsters share their views on the two-mile novice chase championship of Cheltenham Festival 2026.
Ruby Walsh
"Kopek Des Bordes is the best horse in the race. I think he'll win."
Lydia Hislop
"At the prices, I'd back Kopek Des Bordes. He's a good enough horse to win the Arkle off the back of one race. We know it's not impossible and we know this is a good horse. The four quick early fences in pairs of two could get Lulamba and Romeo Coolio on the back foot. Steel Ally could hit the frame."
Tony Mullins
"Kargese is a favourite of mine. She's very good and tough. She's not just a pacemaker, she stays there."
Johnny Dineen
"I'd slightly favour Lulamba. He has that bit more experience. He's a percentage call. Kopek Des Bordes has had a few niggles."
Sportingnews.com
Go for Lulamba: "A high-class novice with momentum, should be involved with the pace to possibly dictate terms."
TalkSPORT
"Lulamba faces a few novice chasers that could improve massively, but this Nicky Henderson-trained horse has impressed more so in his first two starts over fences this season."
GG.com
Matthew Sutcliffe tips July Flower; Joe Napier goes for Kopek Des Bordes.
The Telegraph — Marcus Armytage
Lulamba gained some useful experience for the Arkle against some vastly more experienced chasers, on ground that did not see him at his best, and he looks a worthy favourite, albeit very short, for the race. "At a better price, I also like Steel Ally who won Warwick's Kingmaker. He looks good value for 16-1."
Named after the most celebrated chaser in racing history, the Arkle Challenge Trophy is the definitive test for two-mile novice chasers and one of the most thrilling spectacles of Champion Day.
The race is run over approximately two miles on the Old Course, taking in Cheltenham's notoriously testing combination of fences — uphill, downhill, plain fences and open ditches — at championship pace. A horse must be both brave and technically brilliant to win the Arkle. A single jumping error at the speed this race is run can cost a position that cannot be recovered.
The Arkle has launched some of the most celebrated chasing careers in the sport's history. It has been won by horses who have gone on to dominate the two-mile chasing division for multiple seasons, confirming reputations that had been formed in the novice hurdle sphere and transferring them emphatically to fences.
The race takes its name from the legendary Arkle, who won three consecutive Cheltenham Gold Cups between 1964 and 1966 and is widely considered the greatest National Hunt horse ever to race. Having a race named in your honour at the world's greatest jump racing festival is recognition of an entirely different order, and the Arkle Trophy reflects its namesake's towering reputation.
At Cheltenham's two-mile speed, jumping errors are extremely costly. Prioritise horses who have shown slick, accurate jumping under pressure in their novice chase starts. A horse who has made jumping mistakes, even minor ones, carries elevated risk in the Arkle.
Horses with a relatively small number of chase starts — typically three to five — have a consistently strong record in the Arkle. Elite yards often save their best novice chasers for the Festival, meaning a horse with an apparently short chase campaign may be more exposed than the run count suggests.
Horses who were top-class hurdlers before switching to fences bring a proven ability to travel at pace and handle a hurdling-style jumping rhythm. Several Arkle winners have been Grade 1 novice hurdle winners in the previous season — check hurdling form carefully.
The Arkle market is one of the most keenly followed at the Festival. Significant ante-post moves in the final fortnight before the race are highly significant signals from well-informed punters and connections. Track morning-of-race market moves particularly carefully.
The ideal Arkle candidate arrives at Cheltenham with a combination of two qualities that are rarely found together: explosive pace and technical jumping. The horses who win this race do so by travelling so efficiently from fence to fence that they never have to expend energy recovering from errors — they simply flow through the race at a level others cannot match.
The preparatory race most associated with Arkle success in recent seasons has been the Racing Post Novice Chase at Leopardstown in December — a Grade 1 that attracts the cream of the Irish novice chasing crop. Horses who have won that race and then been kept fresh for Cheltenham have an outstanding record in the Arkle itself.
British-trained contenders have found the Arkle increasingly difficult to win in recent years as the depth of Irish novice chasing has grown, but Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls in particular continue to produce competitive Arkle runners from their powerful yards.