Cheltenham Festival: Pertemps Network Final

The Cheltenham Festival, staged annually in March, is the undisputed highlight of the National Hunt season. The Festival programme consists of 28 premium races, including 14 at the highest, Grade 1 level, of which the four ‘feature’ races – the Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase, Stayers’ Hurdle and Cheltenham Gold Cup – are the highlights.

The Festival handicap races, of which there are ten, are always fiercely competitive and probably none more so than the Pertemps Network Final. Scheduled for day three, ahead of the Ryanair Chase and the Stayers’ Hurdle, the Pertemps Network Final is a handicap hurdle, run over three miles on the New Course at Cheltenham. As the name suggests, the race marks the culmination of a season-long series of qualifying races, the winners of which are guaranteed a place, provided they are officially rated highly enough.

Not altogether surprisingly, the Pertemps Network Final has produced just one winning favourite in the last decade, Sire Du Berlais in 2019, and two of the last three winners, Third Wind in 2022 and Monmiral in 2024, were sent off at 25/1.The ante-post Cheltenham odds for the 2025 renewal is wide open, with Jeriko De Reponet (7/1), owned by J.P. McManus and trained by Nicky Henderson, just shading favouritism ahead of The Wallpark (8/1), who is in the same ownership, but trained by Gordon Elliott. Defending champion Monmiral (25/1) faces a significantly stiffer task off an 11lb higher mark this time around so, at the same price, recent Musselburgh winner Pyffo, trained by Harry Derham, may represent better value for the home team.

 

Cheltenham Festival 2025:  https://blog.betway.com/horse-racing/countdown-to-cheltenham-earn-over-pound100-in-free-bets-1/