Interesting Cheltenham Day 1 confirmations and omissions

The latest round of entries came out on Wednesday morning for day one of the Cheltenham Festival 2025.

We’ve picked out some of the eye-catching omissions for Tuesday and a horse that has been supplemented for the Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle.

Mares’ Hurdle for Henderson mare

Day one of the Cheltenham Festival 2025 is just around the corner and the six-day entries threw out some interesting names and absentees on Wednesday morning.

Perhaps none more so than the six-year-old mare Joyeuse who will be taking on an under-par Close Brothers Mares Hurdle with the likelihood that two of the big guns - Lossiemouth for Willie Mullins and Brighterdaysahead for Gordon Elliott - looking likely to take on the geldings in the Champion Hurdle forty minutes later. Although it’s worth noting that Lossiemouth still has entries for both races.

Joyeuse made an impressive start to her career in a French bumper before landing a maiden hurdle at Taunton on debut for Nicky Henderson. Having shaped with promise in a couple of competitive handicaps before Christmas this season, she then took an almighty step forward when bolting up to win a huge pot in the William Hill Hurdle at Newbury.

She won by eight lengths going away that day and that is always one of the most competitive handicaps of the entire season over two miles so she’s well worth a crack at Grade 1 company with the main players heading elsewhere.

The primary threat could come from last year’s Festival winner Golden Ace. Jeremy Scott’s mare also holds an entry for the Champion Hurdle but the trainer has given signals that this daughter of Golden Horn will be keeping to her own sex this year.

O’Neill handicapper waiting until Thursday

One of the key absentees from the entries on Tuesday was Jonjo O’Neill’s Johnnywho.

This lightly-raced eight-year-old held entries for both the Ultima Handicap Chase and the National Hunt Novices’ Handicap Chase but O’Neill seemingly prefers the option of the Kim Muir on Thursday for his charge.

Johnnywho made a bright start to life over fences, winning a novice chase at Carlisle and while he’s failed to build on that in a trio of Grade 2 races subsequently, there’s a strong chance he’ll relish this drop down in class on handicap chase debut from a mark of 140.

Big guns set for match up in the first Championship race of the Festival

All the names retained their place in this year’s Champion Hurdle, giving the race its strongest line up in recent memory.

Constitution Hill is the odds-on favourite for this contest after his back-to-back wins this season and Henerson was brimming with confidence when interviewed after his recent racecourse gallop.

Brighterdaysahead and Lossiemouth head the mares’ challenge while last year’s winner, State Man, is the one that appears to be going under the radar as far as the betting is concerned, generally available at around 10-1.

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