Ultima Handicap Chase Betting Tips – Expert Predictions

The Ultima Handicap Chase is the opening handicap contest of the Festival and often provides punters with a competitive betting heat to dig their teeth into. With so much to decipher, our experts have picked out their winning predictions, to give you the best chance of finding the winner for the 2025 race.

Bookmakers not found
Claim Bonus Signup Offer Bet 5p Get £40 In Free Bets
Huge range of horse racing promotions
Efficient mobile app
Vast sports betting platform
Claim Bonus
10 Our Score
Excellent Review

Andrew Mount’s Ultima Handicap Chase Tip

Awaiting Tip…

Matty Sutcliffe’s Ultima Handicap Chase Tip

Awaiting Tip…


Ultima Handicap Chase Bookmaker Odds – Race 3, Tuesday 10th March 2:40

The 2026 Ultima Handicap Chase will be another very competitive renewal and we will have all the latest odds for the race here when they are available…


All About The Ultima Handicap Chase in 2026

The Ultima Handicap Chase is one of the leading staying handicaps of the jumps season. Its place as the first handicap race of the Festival serves as a punter’s favourite puzzle, with more runners and more competition than the races surrounding it.

Run over three miles and a furlong of the old course, the 2024 field will only begin to take shape as the season progresses. Until declarations are announced it’s difficult to know which horses are going to line up here.


Any horse aged five or over can compete in the race and they must have earned a handicap mark. No five-year-olds have won this from the end of the Second World War though, as that age group would routinely find this too tough a stamina test.

Unusually, however, though age often brings with it staying power, Vintage Clouds was the first horse aged 10 or above to win this race since 2010 when winning in 2021, ensuring more than a decade’s gap in between.

It also pays to mix things up in looking for the winner. When Un Temps Pour Tout won his second Ultima Handicap Chase in 2017, he was the first horse to repeat his initial victory since Scot Lane in 1983. He broke a second unwritten rule in the race as well: as top-weight, he was the first to carry the heaviest burden since Arkloin in 1966, though Corach Rambler has since matches the two-time winning feat.

Class can often be a positive factor, though. Along with David Pipe’s dual winner, five other horses have won the race carrying 11st 3lb or more since 2014, while only two horses have carried fewer than 10st 5lb since 2006. Those at the bottom of the handicap often find these deeper waters more difficult to swim in, although that wasn’t the case for Corach Rambler in 2022, winning off just 10st 2lbs.

Similarly, Vintage Clouds’ 28/1 success in this was an anomaly. Before him, no horse priced above 11/1 had been successful since 2013, so the bookmakers usually have a fair understanding of who is likely to win, albeit Coo Star Sivola and Wichita Lineman are the only favourites, outright or joint, to be victorious since the turn of the millennium.

Bookmakers not found
Claim Bonus Signup Offer £40 Racing Free Bets When You Place A £10 Bet On Royal Ascot Plus £5 Free Bet On Any Sport
Exciting regular promotions
Excellent ante-post betting
Free game features such as Beat The Drop
Claim Bonus
10 Our Score
Excellent Review

2026 Ultima Handicap Chase Prize Money

Connections of 2025 winner Chianti Classico landed £84.405.00, with prize money given to the top eight runners. 

The prize pot for the 2026 renewal will likely be around the £123,000 mark.


Ultima Handicap Chase History

This is a genuine test for handicap chasers, as proven by the fact that only three horses have ever won this race more than once. Combine that with only two jockeys having won the race three times (Robert Thornton and Tom Scudamore), and two trainers having won four each (Fred Rimell and Fulke Walwyn), and you can see how well this prize has been spread around.

This is often seen as an excellent race to take in before a tilt at the Grand National. Sixhorses have gone on to win a Grand National off the back of this race, although only two have done so in the same season: Seagram back in 1991, and Corach Rambler most recently in 2023.

With fewer horses rising through the ranks of handicaps, and indeed fewer Grade 1 horses competing in such races, the Ultima has not produced as many Gold Cup runners/winners as it used to. No fewer than four winners of this race in the 1950s went on to win a Gold Cup, while Charter Party did so in the 1980s. More recently, only Holywell has gone on from this race to go close in a Gold Cup when fourth in 2015.

Unlike so many races to have fallen their way in recent history, there has remarkably been no Irish winner of this race for 18 years. Dun Doire was the last to do so for Tony Martin back in 2006, only a year more recently than one of few French winners at the Festival, Kelami for the now retired Francois Doumen.

Corach Rambler did the Ultima-Grand National double when claiming both races in 2023; it was also his second successive victory in this race.

Winners since 2000

YearHorseJockey/TrainerOdds
2000MarlboroughJ: Mick Fitzgerald
T:Nicky Henderson
11/2
2001VOIDJ:N/A
T:N/A
VOID
2002Frenchman’s CreekJ:Paul Carberry
T:Hughie Morrison
8/1
2003YoulneverwalkaloneJ:Barry Geraghty
T:Christy Roche
7/1
2004Fork LightningJ:Robert Thornton
T:Alan King
7/1
2005KelamiJ:Robert Thonrton
T:Francois Doumen
8/1
2006Dun DoireJ:Ruby Walsh
T:Tony Martin
7/1
2007Joes Edge J:Davy Russell
T:Ferdy Murphy
50/1
2008An Accordion J:Tom Scudamore
T:
David Pipe
7/1
2009Wichita LinemanJ:Tony McCoy
T:Jonjo O’Neill
5/1F
2010Chief Dan GeorgeJ:Paddy Aspell
T:James Moffatt
33/1
2011BensalemJ:Robert Thornton
T:Alan King
5/1
2012Alfie SherrinJ:Richie McLernon
T:Jonjo O’Neill
14/1
2013Golden ChieftainJ:Brendan Powell Jr
T:Colin Tizzard
28/1
2014HolywellJ:Richie McLernon
T:Jonjo O’Neill
10/1
2015The Druids NephewJ:Barry Geraghty
T:Neil Mulholland
8/1
2016Un Temps Pour ToutJ:Tom Scudamore
T:
David Pipe
11/1
2017Un Temps Pour ToutJ:Tom Scudamore
T:
David Pipe
9/1
2018Coo Star SivolaJ:Lizzie Kelly
T:Nick Williams
5/1F
2019Beware The BearJ:Jeremiah McGrath
T:Nicky Henderson
10/1
2020The ConditionalJ:Brendan Powell Jr
T:
David Bridgwater
15/2
2021Vintage CloudsJ:Ryan Mania
T:
Sue Smith
28/1
2022Corach RamblerJ:Derek Fox
T:
Lucinda Russell
10/1
2023Corach RamblerJ:Derek Fox
T:
Lucinda Russell
6/1J
2024Chianti ClassicoJ:David Bass
T:Kim Bailey
6/1
2025MyretownJ:Patrick Wadge
T:Lucinda Russell
13/2F

Cheltenham Festival Racing Schedule – Day 1

TimeRaceTips
1:20Supreme Novices’ HurdleRead Tip
2:00Sporting Life Arkle ChallengeRead Tip
2:40Ultima Handicap Steeple ChaseRead Tip
3:20Close Brothers Mares’ HurdleRead Tip
4:00Unibet Champion HurdleRead Tip
4:40Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap HurdleRead Tip
5:20National Hunt ChaseRead Tip
Bookmakers not found
Claim Bonus Signup Offer Bet 5p Get £40 In Free Bets
Huge range of horse racing promotions
Efficient mobile app
Vast sports betting platform
Claim Bonus
10 Our Score
Excellent Review