Who could enter Cheltenham Festival frame at Gowran Park on Saturday

Or not, as has often been the case with the Cheltenham Festival in recent seasons.

Only last year there were eight horses who came out on top that hadn’t been sighted at all during the same calendar year including, of course, 100/1 Triumph winner Poniros, who was untried in the National Hunt game altogether having been off since finishing down the field in the previous September’s Cesarewitch at Newmarket.

However, while most punters might assume – on the back of Newbury, Warwick and the Dublin Racing Festival – that all the relevant Festival form is now safely tucked away in the book, there is nearly always time for something to throw their name into the hat with a positive effort deep into February or early-March.

Across the last 10 Cheltenham Festivals, there have been a total of 34 winners to have run within the past 25 days, with at least one delivering each year.

In 2025, the two who were able to pull off the achievement were both British-based, Myretown landing the Ultima less than a month on from scoring at Kelso and Golden Ace following up her Kingwell Hurdle win at Wincanton, albeit with a fortuitous success in the Unibet Champion.

But from the total of 34 who fit the criteria over the past decade, 22 of the Cheltenham winners with a recent run under their belt were trained in Ireland.

Seven of those ran at Navan’s Boyne Hurdle meeting towards the end of February, which will clearly be worth keeping an eye on again, while four ran at the final Punchestown meeting before Cheltenham. Three prepped at Naas, and the same number at Fairyhouse around the same time in late-February, while a couple of the winners ran at Thurles en route to the big meeting in March.

Emmet Mullins famously landed the Morebattle/County Hurdle double to claim the big bonus prize with The Shunter in 2021, while the other two competed on what was effectively this Saturday’s Red Mills card at Gowran Park.

One of those horses was Presenting Percy, who is actually a double-qualifier when it comes to the short Fez prep as he won the 2017 Pertemps Final to follow up his Fairyhouse success on February 25, and the following season he finished second in the Red Mills Chase at Gowran before winning the Broadway Novices’ Chase (now the Brown Advisory).

The other Gowran graduate was 2019 Arkle hero Duc Des Genievres, who took the two and a half-mile beginners chase on his way to Cheltenham.

So, who could be the next cab off the rank?

There are three to keep tabs on as far as I’m concerned this weekend, starting with Arouet in the maiden hurdle at 12:45. By Galiway out of a Bated Breath mare, he’s from a good Flat family and displayed no shortage of promise in three outings on the level last spring and summer, earning an official Irish rating of 101 in the process.

Last seen finishing runner-up to subsequent Royal Ascot second and Group 3 winner Zahrann in a Listed event at Leopardstown in June 2025, he looks a fascinating contender first time out over hurdles for trainer Paddy Twomey and we know the colt handles bad ground as it was soft at Cork for his debut.

Daniel King - he of Oscars Brother fame - takes the ride and he's a 50/1 shot in several places for the JCB Triumph at Cheltenham. Going in against Willie Mullins’ Madness d’Elle here should at least give them a reasonable guide as to whether the Festival entry is worth pursuing.

The Red Mills Trial Hurdle isn’t a realistic prep run for the Champion at Cheltenham but it’s been won by several smart horses including Teahupoo, Fil Dor and Kitzbuhel in the past four years alone.

They all went on to Cheltenham or Aintree – admittedly without success – and although Workahead (Champion Hurdle) is the only one of this weekend's octet with a Festival entry at this stage, we might see a couple of these given handicap options at Cheltenham next week.

Kawaboomga met with a setback around this time last year and will be making his first appearance since beating William Munny in a Fairyhouse maiden 385 days ago, with stablemate Storm Heart the more obvious one for this event (and beyond).

He was defying his own layoff when winning at Limerick over Christmas (replay below) and, after a nice break since, looks open to any amount of further improvement at this sort of trip while the mud is flying.

If all goes to plan here and he’s considered too high in the weights for a Cheltenham handicap, the Aintree Hurdle could become an option if conditions are suitable on Merseyside.

The Grade 3 Surehaul Mercedes-Benz Novice Hurdle has been saved and rescheduled from Clonmel’s recently abandoned fixture and has developed a reputation for producing Albert Bartlett contenders, but this year’s edition lacks a bit of star quality.

Grand Annual possible The King Of Prs appears exceptionally well treated running off 114 back over timber in the Albert Bartlett Triple Crown Series At Punchestown Festival 2026 Qualifier Handicap Hurdle, but the most interesting horse on the whole card has to be Impaire Et Passe in the feature Red Mills Chase at 15:40.

He’s been on the sidelines since being brought down when sent off just 11/4 for the Champion Novice Chase at Punchestown last April, that coming less than a month on from beating Gidleigh Park and Jango Baie in the Grade 1 Manifesto Novices’ Chase at Aintree.

Recently confirmed among the entries for the Ryanair Chase (12/1), Cheltenham Gold Cup (66/1) and the Randox Grand National (50/1), he’s still only an eight-year-old and, with an impressive comeback success, could add another layer to his trainer’s already tricky predicament as to what to run in the Ryanair, with Gaelic Warrior, Fact To File and Il Etait Temps already in the melting pot.

Published at 16:00 GMT on 12/02/26

Also read - Matt Brocklebank's Handicap Hints series:

• Hoe Joly Smoke signals are positive (11/02/26)
• Who qualified for Festival handicaps at the DRF? (04/02/26)
• Quebecois, Bold Endeavour & Only By Night worth noting (28/01/26)
• Let It Rain for Milldam (21/01/26)
• Grand plans not necessarily for the better (14/01/26)
• Imperial Saint well-treated horse (07/01/26)
• In d’Or, Fiercely Proud & O’Connell (10/12/25)
• Regent's Stroll a long-term project (03/12/25)
• Keep tabs on Navajo Indy (26/11/25)
• Not all Bad for Pauling (19/11/25)
• Johnny be good fit for Becher (12/11/25)
• De Bromhead improver in Paddy Power 05/11/25)
• Introducing the column (22/10/25)

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