{"id":35752,"date":"2025-03-13T17:00:47","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T17:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sportscasting.com\/uk\/?p=35752"},"modified":"2025-03-13T17:02:12","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T17:02:12","slug":"cheltenham-festival-races-with-no-winning-favourite-for-over-10-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sportscasting.com\/uk\/news\/cheltenham-festival-races-with-no-winning-favourite-for-over-10-years\/","title":{"rendered":"The TWO Cheltenham Festival Races With NO Winning Favourite For Over 10 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the 2024 Festival we saw NINE winning Cheltenham favourites – which equates to a 33% return if you backed all the market leaders.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

While overall the jollies have fair records in most Cheltenham Festival<\/a> races – however, heading into the 2025 meeting, it could pay to know there are TWO contests that favourite backers have struggled in over the last 10+ years.<\/p>\n

Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle Hasn’t Seen A Winning Favourite Since 2013<\/strong><\/h2>\n

First up is the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle<\/strong> – which is run as the fourth race on the final day each year (Friday).<\/p>\n

This 3m contest has been a graveyard contest for favourites in recent years – with NO winning favourite since 2013.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meaning the race often billed as the ‘Potato Race’<\/em> is on a run of eleven years with no Cheltenham favourite rewarding backers.<\/p>\n

The last jolly to land the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle was the JP McManus-owned At Fishers Cross<\/strong> in 2013, who won as the 11\/8 market leader with the best horse racing betting sites in the UK<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Over this time – the average winning SP is 20\/1.<\/p>\n

Plus, we’ve even seen some top class horses win the race – including Minella Indo in 2019 at 50\/1, who went onto win the 2021 Cheltenham Gold Cup.<\/p>\n

This Cheltenham favourites curse struck again in 2024 when the red-hot 2\/1 jolly Reading Tommy Wrong, who is trained by Willie Mullins<\/a>, was pulled-up.<\/p>\n