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The handicap weights for Cheltenham have been released

Handicap weights for the 2026 Cheltenham Festival published

By Sporting Life
Horse Racing
Tue February 24, 2026 · 16 min ago

The handicap weights for the 2026 Cheltenham Festival were unveiled at Kempton Park on Tuesday.

It wasn't only the Irish trainers who were waiting nervously for this year's pronouncements from the BHA handicappers with Ben Pauling saying of Handstands on Monday: "I’d be very interested in Handstands in the Ultima, especially if someone from Ireland, or England, would run against him off 162.

"That would make me quite excited and would probably sway my decision.”

Pauling is out of luck as far as Handstands goes, as the only horse above him in the weights for the Ultima on the opening day of The Festival is Iroko who is entered to run at Kelso on Saturday, raising the likelihood of Handstands having to carry top-weight in that contest - or the Sun Racing Plate in which he also holds an entry - if connections opt to go down that route.

Handstands is ridden along the gallops at Ben Pauling's yard

Saratoga, the ante-post favourite for the McCoy Contractors Juvenile Handicap Hurdle, has been allotted a mark of 130 [rated 125 in Ireland] some 8 lbs below the mark given to joint top-weight Highland Crystal who gave the J.P. McManus owned runner 7 lbs when beating him by three parts of a length earlier this month.

Genealogy was beaten over 20 lengths into last that day and has been rated 120 having previously chased home Winston Junior (131) at Ascot.

The Mouse Morris trained Bossofthebrownies tops the handicap for the National Hunt Novices' Handicap Chase while the Gordon Elliott-trained pair of Ndaawi (156) and The Yellow Clay (155) top the Coral Cup weights on Wednesday; Ndaawi only has Anzadam (157) above him in the William Hill County Hurdle.

Stumptown (162) will concede 5lbs to Favori De Champdou in the Glenfarclas Cross Country but while those marks may have been broadly anticipated, many will have been waiting to see what Roc Dino would come out with.

The unexposed hurdler, trained by Willie Mullins, is a five-race maiden having failed to strike in three runs in France and two in Ireland. Roc Dino has, though, chased home leading novice hurdlers Mighty Park and El Cairos on his two runs for the Closutton handler.

Roc Dino has entries in the three handicap hurdles and is shortest in the betting for the Martin Pipe, the closing race of The Festival, in which he is currently due to carry 11-0 having been given a mark of 131 which is 7 lb higher than his domestic rating.

Cheltenham Festival 2026 Stable Tours

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