Coral Cup Preview, Tips, Runners & Trends (Cheltenham Festival)

Uncover the secrets of this fiercely competitive 2Β½-mile handicap hurdle. Analyze trends of past winners, examine key statistics, and gain insights into one of the Festival's most challenging betting puzzles for punters and professionals alike.
Coral Cup Preview, Tips, Runners & Trends (Cheltenham Festival)
Andy Powell
Andy Powell Content Editor

Horse Racing stats man, Andy has contributed to OLBG for 18 years - An Ipswich fan and F1 fanatic, he also contributes EFL football and Motor Sport opinion.

2025 Coral Cup Preview

Two miles and five furlongs Handicap Hurdle where there is usually more than one big gamble on the day of the race. However, big price winners of this race are very common so why not try for an outsider?

Below we have taken a look at the race in greater detail with previous Coral Cup trends and form picks highlighted by our expert horse racing tipsters to help you find the winner of the Coral Cup.

Uncover Coral Cup winning strategies through our deep dive into past race patterns and trainer performance, and supercharge your bets with these top free bets for Cheltenham.

Coral Cup Information:

Why not use the trends shortlist below to help you narrow down the field and then head over to the dedicated Cheltenham tips page to see which runners are being supported by the OLBG expert racing tipsters to find yourself a bet? We cover every race at the Cheltenham Festival and below you can find links to all of the races for each of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday.

Best Horse Racing Betting Sites 2025
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How competitive is the Coral Cup market? When looking at the over-rounds for the last 20 renewals, the most competitive market was in 2015 when the race had an over-round of 128%. The race in 2006 was a race that was most in the bookie's favour with an over-round of 143%, whilst on average over the last 20 renewals of the Coral Cup, the over-round has been 135%, which means the bookie expects to pay out £100 for every £135 which is bet.

Below you will find the 2025 Coral Cup Trends, see which patterns have occurred over the recent renewals that you may be able to use for the next renewal, we also have a section that looks at the Coral Cup Trend Analysis.

These are the top three quickest-run Coral Cup over the last 20 renewals:

  1. Whisper (4:58.70) in 2014
  2. Son Of Flicka (5:00.40) in 2012
  3. Skys The Limit (5:02.50) in 2006

Looking at the future form, is the winner worth following next time out? From the past 20 if you had followed the winner of the Coral Cup next time out then you would have backed a total of 2 winners. Backing all 20 runners who have been out since to win at SP next time out, would have returned an LSP of -13.50. Remember to use the racing predictions along with the information on this page to find a bet on the 2025 Coral Cup.

Over the last 20 renewals, it was Whisper, trained by Nicky Henderson and ridden by Nico de Boinville who set the fastest winning time in the Coral Cup, the runner won the race in a time of 4:58.70 when winning the race in 2014. At the other end of the scale, it was the combination of trainer Dan Skelton and jockey Harry Skelton with Langer Dan who set the slowest winning time, the race-winning time was 5:32.44 in the 2024 renewal.

What the expert says...
Only two of the last eight winners of the Coral Cup came into the race on the back of a win (2020 & 2021). Langer Dan has won the last two with form of 8th in the Relkeel Hurdle and 14th in the Lanzarote Hurdle!

Andy Powell - Horse Racing Betting Expert - OLBG.com

Coral Cup NRNB 12 Mar @ 14:40 - AntePost
Altobelli 9.00
Be Aware 10.00
Storm Heart 11.00
Kitzbuhel 11.00
Take No Chances 13.00

Coral Cup Past Winners

Here are the Coral Cup past winners for the last 10 renewals. Each row details the year of the race, the horse which won along with the age & weight of the horse. The horse's trainer and the jockey at the time of winning the Coral Cup are also displayed, along with the starting price at which the horse was sent off.

YearHorseInfo
2024
5:32.44
Langer Dan (IRE)
8yo 11-8 13/2
Harry Skelton
Dan Skelton (GB)
2023
5:14.46
Langer Dan (IRE)
7yo 11-4 9/1
Harry Skelton
Dan Skelton (GB)
2022
5:19.82
Commander Of Fleet (IRE)
8yo 11-5 50/1
Shane Fitzgerald (5lbs)
Gordon Elliott (IRE)
2021
5:08.59
Heaven Help Us (IRE)
7yo 10-2 33/1
Richard Condon (7lbs)
Paul Hennessy (IRE)
2020
5:25.40
Dame De Compagnie (FR)
7yo 10-12 5/1F
Barry Geraghty
Nicky Henderson (GB)
2019
5:08.04
William Henry (IRE)
9yo 11-10 28/1
Nico de Boinville
Nicky Henderson (GB)
2018
5:20.80
Bleu Berry (FR)
7yo 11-2 20/1
Mark Walsh
W P Mullins (IRE)
2017
5:04.60
Supasundae (GB)
7yo 11-4 16/1
Robbie Power
Mrs John Harrington (IRE)
2016
5:02.90
Diamond King (IRE)
8yo 11-3 12/1
Davy Russell
Gordon Elliott (IRE)
2015
5:07.45
Aux Ptits Soins (FR)
5yo 10-7 9/1
Sam Twiston-Davies
Paul Nicholls (GB)

Where have the winning runners come from?

Here are the countries where the winning trainers of the Coral Cup have been based:

  • GB: 11 winners with an additional 36 placings from 350 runners
  • IRE: 8 winners with an additional 24 placings from 167 runners
  • FR: 1 winner with an additional 0 placings from 3 runners

Coral Cup Trainer Statistics

The leading trainer in the Coral Cup over the last 20 renewals is Nicky Henderson who has won the race four times with those four winners coming from Spirit River (2010), Whisper (2014), William Henry (2019) and Dame De Compagnie (2020). Other trainers who have recorded multiple wins in the Coral Cup are Gordon Elliott (3 wins) and Dan Skelton (2 wins). Multiple trainers have not had the best of times over the last 20 renewals in the Coral Cup, Philip Hobbs (0-18), David Pipe (0-16), Nigel Twiston-Davies (0-13), Jonjo O'Neill (0-11) and Gary Moore (0-11) have all failed to produce a single winner despite sending multiple runners to the race.

Here are some of the top Coral Cup trainer statistics over the last 20 renewals (R = Runners, W = Winners, P = Places including winners, Win LSP is based on 1pt Win and EW LSP is based on 0.5pt Win & 0.5pt Place):

TrainerR-W-PWinEW
Nicky Henderson56-4-9+9.00-1.30
Gordon Elliott33-3-8+48.00+32.01
Dan Skelton7-2-3+10.50+7.19
W P Mullins51-1-8-30.00-12.62
Paul Nicholls23-1-5-13.00-9.36
Alan King19-1-4+15.00+11.51
Venetia Williams10-1-1+24.00+11.63
Donald McCain5-1-1+12.00+6.00
Mrs John Harrington4-1-2+13.00+9.25
T J Taaffe4-1-2+11.00+8.25

Coral Cup Jockey Statistics

There are two leading jockeys in the Coral Cup over the last 20 renewals with both Nico de Boinville and Harry Skelton who have both won the race two times. Nico de Boinville winners have been with Whisper (2014) and William Henry (2019). Harry Skelton winners have been with Langer Dan (2023 & 2024). There is one jockey who has not had the best of times in the Coral Cup, Paul Townend has ridden 10 runners to the race without recording any wins.

Here are some of the top Coral Cup jockey statistics over the last 20 renewals (R = Runners, W = Winners, P = Places including winners, Win LSP is based on 1pt Win and EW LSP is based on 0.5pt Win & 0.5pt Place):

JockeyR-W-PWinEW
Nico de Boinville10-2-2+34.00+18.25
Harry Skelton10-2-3+7.50+4.19
Sam Twiston-Davies12-1-4-2.00+0.26
Mark Walsh9-1-1+12.00+4.50
Shane Fitzgerald1-1-1+50.00+31.25
Richard Condon1-1-1+33.00+20.63
Paul Townend10-0-1-10.00-7.00
David Bass8-0-1-8.00-4.37
Danny Mullins8-0-0-8.00-8.00
Jack Kennedy6-0-1-6.00-3.50

Coral Cup Trend Analysis

✅ The trend factor that produced 10+ winners and shows the best LSP, an LSP of +110.00 is when runners had 1 career win in Handicap races.

❌ The worst performing factor that has failed to produce a single winner is when runners ran in a Class 4 when last winning, when backing these the trend shows a record of 0-84.

The courses that have produced the most winners of the Coral Cup are Kempton, Leopardstown, Cheltenham, Navan, Newbury, Fairyhouse and Ffos Las, there has been a total number of 2 winners from each of those courses.

The race is open to both sexes with the Male runners having produced a total of 18 winners from a total of 500 runners whilst the Female runners have produced 2 winners from a total of 20 runners.

Looking over the past renewals, these are the stallions whose offspring have produced multiple winners of the Coral Cup:

  • Kings Theatre (2 Wins)
  • Ocovango (2 Wins)

These are the stallions whose offspring have not produced a winner of the Coral Cup despite multiple attempts:

  • Oscar (0 Wins from 9 runners)
  • Presenting (0 Wins from 9 runners)
  • Sadlers Wells (0 Wins from 9 runners)
  • Accordion (0 Wins from 8 runners)
  • Kayf Tara (0 Wins from 7 runners)

Looking at the winning odds over the last 20 renewals, the biggest-priced winner was Commander Of Fleet in 2022, winning for Gordon Elliott at odds of 50/1 under the guidance of Shane Fitzgerald. Looking at the runners at the head of the market over the last 20 renewals there have been 1 winning favourites in the race. Ahead of the 2025 Coral Cup why not head over to the best racing tipster page to see what the tipsters are backing today?

Route to the Coral Cup

Many trainers will target races to use as prep races before coming to the Coral Cup, these are the races which the recent winners ran in before coming here:

InfoLast Race
2024 - Langer Dan
Kempton - 14th of 19 (66/1)
Lanzarote Hurdle
2023 - Langer Dan
Cheltenham - 8th of 9 (25/1)
careers@dornangroup.com Relkeel Hurdle
2022 - Commander Of Fleet
Navan - 3rd of 9 (16/1)
BetVictor Boyne Hurdle
2021 - Heaven Help Us
Leopardstown - 1st of 20 (16/1)
Irish Stallion Farms EBF Paddy Mullins Mares Handicap Hurdle
2020 - Dame De Compagnie
Cheltenham - 1st of 16 (2/1)
Park Mares Handicap Hurdle
2019 - William Henry
Wincanton - PU of 11 (6/1)
Pertemps Network Handicap Hurdle
2018 - Bleu Berry
Leopardstown - 17th of 28 (12/1)
Timeless Sash Windows Handicap Hurdle
2017 - Supasundae
Navan - 4th of 9 (6/1)
Ladbrokes Ireland Boyne Hurdle
2016 - Diamond King
Punchestown - 1st of 6 (6/5)
Follow Us On Facebook & Twitter Rated Hurdle
2015 - Aux Ptits Soins
Auteuil - 1st of 10 (11/5)
Prix Cadoudal

Schedule for Tuesday at the Cheltenham Festival

Prepare for the ROAR of the Cheltenham Festival on the opening day when the tape goes up for the Supreme Novices Hurdle, the feature on Tuesday is the Champion Hurdle.

RaceLast WinnerInfo
13:20 Cheltenham
Supreme Novices Hurdle
Slade Steel (IRE)
6yo - 7/2
Henry De Bromhead
Rachael Blackmore
14:00 Cheltenham
Arkle Challenge Trophy
Gaelic Warrior (GER)
6yo - 2/1
W P Mullins
Paul Townend
14:40 Cheltenham
Ultima Handicap Chase
Chianti Classico (IRE)
7yo - 6/1
Kim Bailey
David Bass
15:20 Cheltenham
Close Brothers Mares Hurdle
Lossiemouth (FR)
5yo - 8/13
W P Mullins
Paul Townend
16:00 Cheltenham
Champion Hurdle
State Man (FR)
7yo - 2/5
W P Mullins
Paul Townend
16:40 Cheltenham
Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle
Lark In The Mornin (GER)
4yo - 9/1
Joseph Patrick O'Brien
J J Slevin
17:20 Cheltenham
National Hunt Chase Challenge Cup
Corbetts Cross (IRE)
7yo - 15/8
Emmet Mullins
Mr Derek O'Connor

Schedule for Wednesday at the Cheltenham Festival

The dust has settled on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival and now on to day two. The feature on the second day is the Queen Mother Champion Chase. We also have the cross country scheduled on Wednesday, a race like Marmite, some love it and some don't!

RaceLast WinnerInfo
13:20 Cheltenham
Turners Novices Hurdle
Ballyburn (IRE)
6yo - 1/2
W P Mullins
Paul Townend
14:00 Cheltenham
Brown Advisory Novices Chase
Fact To File (FR)
7yo - 8/13
W P Mullins
Mark Walsh
14:40 Cheltenham
Coral Cup
Langer Dan (IRE)
8yo - 13/2
Dan Skelton
Harry Skelton
15:20 Cheltenham
Cross Country Chase
Delta Work (FR)
10yo - 11/10
Gordon Elliott
Keith Donoghue
16:00 Cheltenham
Queen Mother Champion Chase
Captain Guinness (IRE)
9yo - 17/2
Henry De Bromhead
Rachael Blackmore
16:40 Cheltenham
Johnny Henderson Grand Annual
Unexpected Party (FR)
9yo - 12/1
Dan Skelton
Harry Skelton
17:20 Cheltenham
Champion Bumper
Jasmin De Vaux (FR)
5yo - 9/2
W P Mullins
Mr P W Mullins

Schedule for Thursday at the Cheltenham Festival

Halfway through the festival and onto day three where the Stayers Hurdle is the feature race. A hurdle race to test the stamina and see how can last best up the Cheltenham hill.

RaceLast WinnerInfo
13:20 Cheltenham
Mares Novices Hurdle
Golden Ace (GB)
6yo - 10/1
Jeremy Scott
Lorcan Williams
14:00 Cheltenham
Novices Limited Handicap Chase
New Race
14:40 Cheltenham
Pertemps Network Final
Monmiral (FR)
7yo - 25/1
Paul Nicholls
Harry Cobden
15:20 Cheltenham
Ryanair Chase
Protektorat (FR)
9yo - 17/2
Dan Skelton
Harry Skelton
16:00 Cheltenham
Stayers Hurdle
Teahupoo (FR)
7yo - 5/4
Gordon Elliott
Jack Kennedy
16:40 Cheltenham
Festival Plate
Shakem UpArry (IRE)
10yo - 8/1
Ben Pauling
Ben Jones
17:20 Cheltenham
Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup
Inothewayurthinkin (IRE)
6yo - 13/8
Gavin Cromwell
Mr Derek O'Connor

Schedule for Friday at the Cheltenham Festival

The final day of the festival and feature race that we have all been waiting for, the Cheltenham Gold Cup in which the Irish have been fairly dominant in recent years.

RaceLast WinnerInfo
13:20 Cheltenham
Triumph Hurdle
Majborough (FR)
4yo - 6/1
W P Mullins
Mark Walsh
14:00 Cheltenham
County Handicap Hurdle
Absurde (FR)
6yo - 12/1
W P Mullins
Paul Townend
14:40 Cheltenham
Mrs Paddy Power Mares Chase
Limerick Lace (IRE)
7yo - 3/1
Gavin Cromwell
Keith Donoghue
15:20 Cheltenham
Albert Bartlett Novices Hurdle
Stellar Story (IRE)
7yo - 33/1
Gordon Elliott
Sam Ewing
16:00 Cheltenham
Cheltenham Gold Cup
Galopin Des Champs (FR)
8yo - 10/11
W P Mullins
Paul Townend
16:40 Cheltenham
Foxhunter Chase Challenge Cup
Sine Nomine (GB)
8yo - 8/1
Fiona Needham
Mr John Dawson
17:20 Cheltenham
Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys Handicap Hurdle
Better Days Ahead (IRE)
6yo - 5/1
Gordon Elliott
Danny Gilligan

Article Contributor Information

We are blessed with an excellent team of specialists and experts at OLBG. Contributing to creating and maintaining this Coral Cup Preview are at hand, Andy and Darren. They both work on the Horse racing tips team team looking after the tipsters and managing the tips settlement, whilst also creating and managing all of the horse racing event previews for National Hunt Racing.

Darren Brett

Darren Brett

Tipster Competition Manager

Darren has worked in the horse racing industry for decades bringing to OLBG for the last 20 years a wealth of knowledge, creating much of our content on these sports. Darren also manages our Grand National Guide and is the go-to font of knowledge for the world's greatest steeplechase.
Andy Powell

Andy Powell

Content Editor

Andy, a seasoned horse racing expert with over 15 years of experience, possesses a comprehensive understanding of the sport, from delving into complex statistical data for jump racing in the UK and Ireland to crafting insightful national hunt racing blogs for OLBG.

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