Cheltenham Festival 2025: Best Bets for Day 1

With Champion Day scheduled for tomorrow, BettingLounge's racing expert Conlan goes through some of his favourite bets for the day, and puts them in one place for you. So, let's just dive in.

You can also check out all of his selections for the day, written before declarations, so prices may have changed.

🥇 Best Bet

My best pick for the first day of the festival is one who, after plenty of hardships and hurdles to overcome, has proven time and time again that he is the best in the game. This, of course, is Constitution Hill in the Champion Hurdle.

The recent declaration of Brighterdaysahead into this race has thrown plenty of punters with regards to where to put their money. She has come on leaps and bounds since her last performance at the Festival, coming a flailing second behind Jeremy Scott’s Golden Ace in the Mares, who she will face again in the Champion Hurdle after a late entry. With a quicker pace this time around, and the return of Jack Kennedy to the saddle, she will be much better suited to this race, but I cannot see her being able to handle Constitution Hill.

The eight-time Grade 1 winner has made Cheltenham his playground, winning three times from three around here by a devastating cumulative 34 lengths. The price may not be the best for him, but all within good reason as the bookies are clearly also very confident that he will get the job done, and it will be so good to see him back and being roared on by the crowd again.

🥈 Next Best

My next best bet for the first day comes in the very first race of the day, the Michael O’Sullivan Supreme Novices Hurdle, under the mount of Top Jockey favourite Paul Townend, that being the French bred Kopek Des Bordes.

This horse gives Willie Mullins the perfect opportunity to start the festival as he means to go on. Winning a Grade 1 Novice Hurdle lto by a comfortable 13 lengths, he caught the eye with his impeccable jumping and the ability to be completely unfazed by the rest of the field. He has seemingly improved with every run and is currently unbeaten in three runnings.

Mullins has equipped him with a first-time hood for his first ever run in England, where this may be a sign that he could be at a risk of feeling nervous on the day, which comes to no surprise due to his lack of experience and the roaring Cheltenham crowd. If he manages to take all of this in his stride, I think we could have a real machine on our hands for the near future, through a horse which could see the Cheltenham Festival open with an impressive display.

👀 Longshot

At a bigger price, my Longshot selection comes in the Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle, namely Wendrock.

In the Gigginstown colours under Jack Kennedy for Gordon Elliott, Wendrock was incredibly unfortunate lto in a Grade 1 at the Dublin Racing Festival, where a mistake at the final flight after leading cost him what could’ve been a big price Grade 1 winner behind the talented Hello Neighbour.

In the weights, he is technically worse off than Beyond Your Dreams and Total Look, but the extended trip and the drying ground should be of every benefit to him, as well as the fact that since he came up against those two, he won a maiden hurdle at Leapordstown and then followed it with a strong performance in the Grade 1.

Jack Kennedy knows how to get a horse up in the dying embers of a race, and I think he has a great chance of getting in the frame as he bids to pick this up for the 5th time for his respective yard.