Race 3 · St. Patrick's Thursday · Thursday, 12 March 2026 · ~2:50pm
Ryanair Chase
Live betting odds for the Grade 1 two-and-a-half mile championship chase — 2m 4f 127y · Grade 1 · Old Course
Live betting odds for the Grade 1 two-and-a-half mile championship chase — 2m 4f 127y · Grade 1 · Old Course
Compare the latest odds for the Ryanair Chase from all major bookmakers. One of the most competitive championship races of the Festival — updated as St. Patrick's Thursday approaches.
Leading racing analysts, journalists and tipsters share their views on the 14:40 Mares' Hurdle on St. Patrick's Thursday 2026.
Ruby Walsh
"I think it's the right race for Lossiemouth. If you're thinking Lossiemouth might go to the Champion, I could see Jade de Grugy coming back here then — she'd be shorter than 9/2 if she runs here with no Lossiemouth or Brighterdaysahead. Lossiemouth would win if she runs here."
Tony Mullins
"Gordon is very bullish about Wodhooh. She's obviously better than what I seem to be seeing — I think Lossiemouth is the best of these."
Johnny Dineen
"It'll be close if Lossiemouth and Wodhooh face off. I'd just about favour Wodhooh, but it would be little or nothing in it."
Sportingnews.com
Likes Wodhooh: "Unexposed but with vast potential. Has shown a great turn of foot in recent runs at Leopardstown and Ascot. Could well outrun expectations and be right in the mix."
Racing Post — Harry Wilson
Tipping Lossiemouth.
TalkSPORT — Tom Lunn
"Wodhooh at 5/4 looks like a great play. This Gordon Elliott-trained horse has won nine of her ten hurdle contests. She burst onto the scene at last year's festival as the 9/2 hot contender, beating some high-rated geldings and proving she warranted a big rise in the ratings."
The Ryanair Chase has established itself as one of the most prestigious championship races of the Festival — a Grade 1 contest over two miles four furlongs and one hundred and twenty-seven yards that attracts the best chasers who fall between the Queen Mother Champion Chase and Cheltenham Gold Cup distances.
The race was introduced in 2005 to fill a gap in the Festival championship programme, providing a championship opportunity for chasers who are too good to run in a handicap but who are not necessarily the specialist two-miler or the staying three-mile-plus type that the other championship chases demand. Its arrival was immediately welcomed, and it quickly attracted horses of the very highest quality.
The Ryanair has become the race that defines the intermediate staying chasing division — horses who have the class to win Grade 1 races at two miles but who have the substance to be even better over further find the Ryanair's two-and-a-half miles the ideal championship distance. Some of the finest chasers of the modern era have won the Ryanair, including horses who went on to win the Gold Cup itself.
The race is often won by horses in the absolute prime of their careers — typically aged between seven and nine — who combine experience with peak physical condition. Horses who have won a Gold Cup trial or a Grade 1 two-and-a-half mile chase during the season are the primary targets, with Irish-trained horses holding a strong recent record.
