Harry Derham already has a bank of fond memories of the Cheltenham Festival, both during his days in the saddle and as assistant to his uncle Paul Nicholls, but now he is eager for more.
Having built up his team at his Boxford base since taking out a license in 2022, the former jockey, who won the 2013 Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle, will head to this year's Festival with a handful of what he describes as "outside, each-way chances".
And while his team for the meeting, given their likely odds, are going to need a slice of good fortune to give Derham that breakthrough victory at the four-day meeting he craves as a trainer, it is a team which possess more than enough talent to spring a surprise result.
Derham said: “The horses have been running really well all season to be honest with you and I’ve been extremely pleased with them. I’m very aware that I’m going to the Festival with outside each-way chances, but the reality of getting started is you still want to go there and be competing so I’m looking forward to it. I feel like three years into my career having a nice team of horses going there is something I’m pleased with.”
HARRY DERHAM CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL 2026 TEAM
DARGIANNINI (Cup Handicap Hurdle)
“He will run in what was the Coral Cup, as long as he gets in. He has been a fabulous old horse for us.
“His owners were keen to run him at the Festival in some stage of his career and we have just kept him fresh for it."
ESCAPEANDEVADE (Debenhams Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Challenge Cup Handicap Chase)
“He will be a lively outsider in the Grand Annual as he is a tough honest horse. I think he has gone up a stone since we have had him and he has been second three times this season and won once.
“After Haydock Park we just rolled the dice at Sandown Park, but it was two weeks after his last run and it came too soon and Harry (Cobden) looked after him.
“You are not a certainty in a 0-140 so you might as well go and run in the Grand Annual and have a good crack, which he will. He is one of those horses that, if he got jumping down the straight the first time, and got on the front end he might outrun his odds."
JACKIE HOBBS (Ryanair Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle)
“Jackie Hobbs is another one that I’m looking forward to running. On ratings she is probably a little bit below what is required to win that race as normally a one hundred and forty-rated horse wins that race, so she has got a bit to find, but she is a good mare.
“Her owners want to go to the Festival, and I completely see why. She finished behind the others in her gallop at Kempton Park today as I asked Harry Cobden to do that as I didn’t want her to have a strong work out. She was just here for the day out as she gets quite busy.
“Harry was delighted with her and he said she went really nicely. She has a chance in the mares’ novices’ hurdle. If they went fast, and it turned into a staying race, which it genuinely does in that, then she has a chance."
MOSSY FEN ROAD (Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle)
“He will run in the Supreme. It went a bit wrong for him at Musselburgh, but he has been fine since and he galloped out nicely at Kempton Park today.
“Coming here today (Kempton gallop) means we don’t have to do as much with him at home. That puts him spot on and Paul (O’Brien) was happy with him. We will keep him fresh as the race is two weeks from today.
“Obviously it is a wildly hot Supreme, but I thought he was a Supreme runner all season so that is where we are off to. It was just a case of there being one better than us on the day at Musselburgh. We probably went a bit too hard, but there is no point making excuses as he got beat.
"They don’t become a bad horse overnight, he just didn’t have his best day and that is life. “Maybe I was trying to get too clever by running him at Musselburgh, and it was probably the wrong thing to do, but I wanted to get three runs into him, so we have done that now.
“I think the easy thing to do after they put in a good performance is to be scared to run them, but I think that would have been the wrong thing. I think he needed another run and I think a run six or seven weeks out from Cheltenham was the right thing to do for him. I don’t regret running him. It is a shame he got beat, but it happens.
“It will be a very good race, but he has been my best novice hurdler all season and the idea is you run your best novice in that race and that is what I’m doing. He is going to go there and have a go. If he runs like he did at Chepstow then he is a lively outsider, but if he runs like he did at Musselburgh then he will get lapped, but I don’t think he will. I’m looking forward to running him.”
ONE HORSE TOWN (JCB Triumph Hurdle)
“We were worried in July if he would carry a penalty and he has done brilliantly as he has won over one hundred thousand pounds in prize money.
“He deserves to run in the Triumph, but we know he is not going to win it, so that is why we run him in the Adonis to pick up more prizemoney. It was a deviation going to the Adonis. He is 15-1 hh, so he is not going to get better next season. He wasn’t going to win any prize money stood in his stable after doing two canters on Saturday.
“He has been brilliant and he runs well around Cheltenham so he will run his race. Will he be good enough to win, no, but he will probably run a competitive race. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he finished fourth or fifth as he is a good tough juvenile who deserves to be there."
Cheltenham Festival 2026: Stable Tours
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