2025 Cheltenham Handicaps Ante-Post E/W Lucky 15

The Cheltenham Festival is fast approaching and Dave Stevos is flat to the mat searching for e/w value. He has already posted stats based tips for the Gold Cup, Stayers’ Hurdle and Champion Chase, his Ryanair Chase preview will be coming soon. Today, he has found four selections for a 2025 Cheltenham Handicaps ante-post e/w Lucky 15. We recommend backing them in small e/w singles too, check out who he fancies below.

4.40 Wednesday – Grand Annual Handicap Chase

Firstly, a word of warning. I don’t have a brilliant record at Cheltenham when it comes to ante-post betting on handicaps. Usually, what can go wrong does go wrong. The ground is unsuitable, the horse picks up an injury or sometimes they even run in a different race. So many horses hold multiple entries for handicaps at different trips so predicting which one they’ll run in is almost as challenging as finding a winner.

At least my Grand Annual selection holds just one entry and even better, he is versatile regarding ground. General Medrano is trained by Emma Lavelle and he is twentieth in the weights so he is guaranteed a run. A 9l winner at Newbury off 131 in late November, he’s been seen just twice since and he proved he could be competitive off his revised mark of 141 when finishing second at Doncaster (16.5f, good) in January.

I’m not too sure that style of track suited him and he should be a lot more at home around Cheltenham, especially in a strongly run race, which this is likely to be. He’s effective on good, good to soft and soft and while he was given a 2lb rise for that Doncaster second, there is every chance there could still be plenty more to come from this 8yo. At odds of 25/1, General Medrano is the e/w selection.

2025 Cheltenham Handicaps Ante Post Tip: General Medrano e/w @ 25/1 (4 places 1/4 odds NRNB)

2.40 Thursday – Pertemps Final Handicap Hurdle

The interesting one at a decent price in the Pertemps is Harbour Lake. Trained by Alan King, this horse qualified for the race by winning at Aintree in November on his seasonal reappearance. The 9yo scored off 129 that day and he ran another blinder when chasing home Supreme Gift off 6lb higher on his last start at Market Rasen just over two weeks later.

Alan King has freshened the son of Shantou up after that last run and that is a plus. His form figures after breaks of 100 days or more read 1P1 so he can go well fresh and another cause for optimism is the fact that he has been placed on both previous visits to Cheltenham.

King nominated this race as his seasonal target after his Aintree win so he will definitely run barring accidents and if there is good in the ground description, his chance will be enhanced (although he does handle soft ground too). At odds of 25/1, Harbour Lake is the e/w selection.

2025 Cheltenham Handicaps Ante Post Tip: Harbour Lake e/w @ 25/1 (4 places 1/4 odds NRNB)

2.00 Friday – County Handicap Hurdle

The cut off for this race last season was 130 and I expect it to be something similar again. I would be extremely tempted by Irish Panther if he were to get a run here but unfortunately, his mark of 128 is probably going to be just a shade too low. If he does sneak in, we can always back him after decs.

Nine of the last ten renewals of this have been won by either Willie Mullins (5) or Dan Skelton (4). Last year, it was Willie’s turn with Absurde (who is back to defend his crown) and in 2023, Skelton struck with Faivoir at odds of 33/1. So, I am surely going to put up one of their horses this year, right? Wrong.

Colonel Mustard has been a real moneyspinner for this blog. He landed some excellent places for us at massive odds as a novice and he has previous in this race. In 2022 he made his handicap debut in the County off a mark of 140 and he ran a massive race to finish third, 3l behind State Man.

Morebattle Form

Amazingly, Lorna Fowler’s charge has only run in two handicap hurdles since then. In 2023 he ran a massive race to finish second in the Morebattle Hurdle at Kelso off 143 and he followed that with a stellar effort in the Scottish Champion Hurdle at Ayr a month later, beaten just 3l into second by Rubaud to whom he was conceding 8lb.

Colonel Mustard finished fifth in last year’s Champion Hurdle and this season, he has finished a close third in an Ascot Grade 2 (beating Golden Ace) and he finished 3.75l behind Kitzbuhel at Punchestown off levels, form that the winner franked on his next start by winning a Grade 3 at Gowran.

He’s now a 10yo, so time is not on his side, but his last two runs suggest he is as good as he ever was and if he is at his best, I think he is more than capable of being competitive off his mark of 146 back in a handicap. Winning might be beyond him but at odds of 33/1 with five places on offer, Colonel Mustard has to be worth chancing e/w.

2025 Cheltenham Handicaps Ante-Post Tip: Colonel Mustard e/w @ 33/1 (5 places NRNB)

5.20 Friday – Martin Pipe Handicap Hurdle

The get out of jail stakes. The one I like here, despite him also being entered in the Coral Cup, is Harry Fry’s Beat The Bat. Fry has Altobelli in the Coral Cup too so hopefully, he’ll keep them apart.

Regular readers will remember us backing this horse for the Betfair (now William Hill) Hurdle at Newbury earlier this month. He wasn’t suited by the 2m trip and got badly outpaced but thankfully he stayed on for fifth and landed the place money.

This horse has plot written all over him. He ran a cracker when conceding 7lb to Dysart Enos in a 2m1f novice here on his final start of 2023/24 and he ran an extremely pleasing race on his seasonal return and handicap debut at Haydock in November (2m3f, soft), shaping like a stiffer test would suit.

Since then, Fry has run him twice over 2m. My thinking when putting him up for Newbury was that they might go a breakneck gallop on testing ground which would have brought his stamina to the fore but that didn’t happen. The step up to 2m5f is a massive plus for this horse and he acts on good and soft ground so he won’t mind what the weather does.

The handicapper gave him 2lb back after that Newbury fifth, dropping him to 133. Hopefully he lives to regret that decision. At odds of 25/1, Beat The Bat is the each way selection.

2025 Cheltenham Handicaps Ante Post Tip: Beat The Bat e/w @ 25/1 (5 places 1/5 odds nrnb)

-DaveStevos