Cheltenham Racecards 2026

Picking a winner is never easy at the Cheltenham Festival. The fiercely competitive nature of the races and with over 500 horses to choose from, it can sometimes feel like an impossible task.

Our in-depth Cheltenham racecards are jam-packed with form, statistics and data to provide you with all the information you need to solve the puzzle and pinpoint your festival bets.

Horse’s number

A horse’s number is displayed in bold on the left-hand side of the racecard next to the horse’s name. Numbers are often allocated by weight in handicap races with number 1 carrying the highest weight in the race.

Jockey Silks

The jockey wears silks designed by the owner of the horse.This helps to identify each horse in the race. The silks are displayed next to the horse’s name.

Horse’s name

The name of the horse is displayed in bold next to its allocated number.

Betting Odds

The odds are shown in bold on the right hand side of the horse’s details and highlighted in green underneath the name of its trainer and jockey. Use the dropdown to select your chosen bookmakers.

Trainer

The trainer’s full name is written to the right of the horse’s name, above the jockey’s name. An in-form trainer will have a good ‘strike-rate’, this is their ratio of winners-to-runners in the past 14 days.The number of winners the trainer has recently sent out can be found by clicking on the trainer’s name.

Jockey

The jockey rides the horse in the race and does the all-important steering. Their full name is written underneath the trainer’s name. The recent record of each jockey can be found by clicking on their name.

Race Conditions

The type/class of the race is displayed at the header of the racecard in bold along with the distance of the race, age of the horses and number declared. The ‘conditions’ tab displays race conditions such as which horses must carry penalties (extra weight).

Previous form

Racing enthusiasts will delve into a horse’s previous form when studying the racecard.

Form figures of ‘12’ are read as first and second. The horse has run twice in its lifetime and has finished first and second.

A dash separates seasons and a slash indicates a prolonged break.

The following can also be visible on a horse’s previous form:

• 0 - finished outside of the first nine
• PU - pulled up
• BD - brought down
• F - fell
• R - refused
• U - unseated rider
• S - Slipped

Clicking on the horse’s name allows you to find details on where the horse ran these races, the ability of the horses they ran against and the type of race.

Age

The age of the horse is in bold to the right of its name.

Weight (wgt)

The weight the horse carries is to the right of the horse’s gender in bold, for example 9-8.

Official rating (OR)

The horse’s official rating is in bold below the horse’s details, for example ‘Rated 113’. A rating is given by the handicapper based on previous runs. Most horses are given an official rating once the horse has run three times.

Days

This figure is the number of days since a horse’s last run shown in brackets.

Equipment (Equip)

This section reveals if the horse is wearing additional equipment in the race which can aid the horse. If the horse is wearing the equipment for the first time there will be a 1 next to the letter. The letters are highlighted in red or grey.

• b - blinkers
• es - eye shields
• h - hood
• p - cheek pieces
• ts - tongue strap
• v - visor
• cp - cheek pieces
• w - wind operation

You will also see these letters highlighted in purple:

• D (distance) - this shows the horse has won previously over the distance of the race.
• C (course) - the horse has won at the same racecourse.
• CD (course and distance) - won at the same racecourse over the same distance.
• BF (beaten favourite) - indicates the horse was a beaten favourite last time out.

Previous Winner

At the footer of the racecard for the big races is the previous winners of the race, punters often look at the record of trainers and jockeys in a race to identify if they target certain races from year-to-year.

irishracing.com Form Filter

You can use the form filter located next to the time of the race to filter by ground, course, type of race and more.

Breeding

The horse’s sire (father) is highlighted in green below its name next to its dam in grey. You can also see the horses relations next to by hovering on the icon in bold.