The Cheltenham Festival is to honour Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal with a race title next week. Her name will precede the Hunters Chase after the Gold Cup, while weather conditions look positive for the entire meeting.
Read on for more of the racing news today in our Tuesday round-up.
Cheltenham latest: Princess Royal honoured, while weather and Timeform could have their say
Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal will be honoured at the 2026 Cheltenham Festival. The new name of the Hunters Chase, the race after the Gold Cup, will now read as the Princess Royal Challenge Cup Open Hunters’ Steeple Chase. A regular visitor to Cheltenham, Princess Anne is perhaps the most famous eventer of all time in other equine disciplines. Cheltenham CEO described her as “an outstanding all-round equestrian” (The Jockey Club)
Fortunately for racegoers, the British weather looks to be turning just in time for the Cheltenham Festival. After a mostly wet start to the year, Cheltenham anticipates a dry week in advance of the opening day. Only a few millimetres of rain are forecast before then, ensuring the current ground should dry up. A week out from the Festival, the Old Course is currently soft, with the New Course good-to-soft. (Racing Post)
For punters, Timeform have released their list of best-handicapped horses at the meeting. Timeform release their own ratings, which are not the same as Official Ratings. The latter category are applied to handicap horses, which ensures Timeform’s differential can tell which horses may be well-treated. The trio are Ben Solo, Madara and Koktail Divin. All three of those horses enter handicap company at Cheltenham next week. (Racing TV)
Boxpark to return to Grand National
Aintree Racecourse has announced that Boxpark will return to the track for the 2026 Grand National meeting. The pop-up will take place in the Festival Zone at the course. Boxpark enjoyed a first run out at Aintree in 2025, to much acclaim from racegoers. A party atmosphere is therefore expected across the three days of the meeting in Liverpool. (Liverpool Echo)
Darryll Holland to relocate to Mauritius
Finally, to a spot of globetrotting. Trainer Darryll Holland, a former Group 1-winning jockey, is to relocate his training operations to the island of Mauritius. 27 meetings will take place there in 2026 under the stewardship of the Mauritius Turf Club. In total 13 trainers have licenses to train on the island, at which Holland rode to wards the end of his career. The 8,000-mile uprooting has seen him put his current Newmarket base up for sale. (Racing Post)