Race 5 · Ladies' Day · Wednesday, 11 March 2026 · ~4:10pm
Cross-Country Chase
Live betting odds for the unique cross-country course spectacle of Cheltenham Festival — 3m 6f · Listed · New Course
Live betting odds for the unique cross-country course spectacle of Cheltenham Festival — 3m 6f · Listed · New Course
Compare the latest odds for the Cross-Country Chase at Cheltenham Festival 2026. The most unique race of the entire Festival — updated as we approach Ladies' Day.
Leading racing analysts, journalists and tipsters share their views on the two-mile championship chase on Ladies' Day 2026.
Ruby Walsh
"Majborough will be very hard to follow."
Lydia Hislop
"I put up Majborough at 6s, and I think he's the likeliest winner of the race. I suspect Quilixios is overpriced."
Tony Mullins
"I think Majborough is going to come out on top."
Johnny Dineen
"I fancy Majborough pretty strongly."
Sportingnews.com
L'eau de Sud has proven form at Cheltenham, winning the Shloer Chase in emphatic fashion — same course and distance as the Champion Chase. Trainer Skelton praised his "silky fencing skills" and has put a bespoke programme together to have him firing for the Festival.
Racing Post — Tom Segal
Also backing L'eau de Sud.
Betfair — Alan Dudman
On Majborough: "It all finally came together at the Dublin Racing Festival — he was as fast as Alfie Tupper from the front. The headgear and cheekpieces seemed to revive his jumping. Letting him go from the front is the way to ride him now and he absolutely destroyed Marine Nationale at Leopardstown by 19L."
The Cross-Country Chase is unlike any other race at Cheltenham Festival — a three-miles-six-furlong adventure across Cheltenham's unique cross-country course on the New Course, featuring obstacles unlike anything found in conventional steeplechasing.
The cross-country course incorporates banks, ditches, water features, log piles, stone walls and natural terrain obstacles that test a horse's adaptability, agility and boldness in ways that conventional fences never can. A horse who excels in the Cross-Country Chase is one who combines the basic bravery of a chaser with the curiosity and adaptability of a genuine all-terrain jumper.
The race became famous through Tiger Roll's back-to-back victories, which followed his Grand National success and created one of the most beloved horse racing stories of recent decades. Tiger Roll's Cheltenham cross-country victories captured the public imagination and brought the race to a far wider audience than it had previously reached, cementing its place as one of the Festival's most talked-about events.
Course experience is absolutely paramount in the Cross-Country Chase. Horses who have previously navigated Cheltenham's cross-country course — particularly those who have won at the course's dedicated cross-country meetings earlier in the season — carry an enormous advantage. First-time visitors to the cross-country course face a genuinely steep learning curve.
