Two Cheltenham Festival winners from last year run in the Ryanair Chase of 2025 with the pair among four horses with joint-top rating of 166. Far from being an easy alternative to the Gold Cup, this could actually turn out to be the steeplechase of the meeting.
More than half of the nine runners have a BHA mark of at least 163. A very good horse should emerge as the winner, then, Given the frontrunning tactics employed by French raider Il Est Francais down in trip after his King George second, the winner will also have to stay well.
Noel George & Amanda Zetterholm want to try and go one better after getting collared at Kempton on Boxing Day by Banbridge. Il Est Francais certainly has a similar style of racing to past Cheltenham winners of the Ryanair like Un De Sceaux, Frodon and Allaho.
The concern with this Cross-Channel runner is his stamina. Il Est Francais didn’t stay an “easy” three milers in the King George, but now has the undulations of Prestbury Park to contend with rather than a flat track.
Willie Mullins comes into the Ryanair Chase in 2025 with a record five victories and all since 2016. Nobody knows what it takes to saddle a winner of this better than him, then, and he has yet another of the Cheltenham favourites in Fact To File, successful during last year’s Festival back for more over a different trip.
A ready winner of the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase on Style Wednesday, he has since lowered the colours of Galopin Des Champs in the John Durkan at Punchestown. That’s no mean feat, but Fact To File has seen the form reversed subsequently.
Tactics Could Hold Key to Ryanair Chase of 2025
It’s not as though Fact To File hadn’t showed his stamina here at Cheltenham races on the Old Course. The New Course is even more galloping, but he had speed enough to drop back in trip before on that Punchestown reappearance.
Fact To File looked fully tuned up for that and, as subsequent rematches with Galopin Des Champs went the other way over further, connections fancy going down in distance despite his background from an extended bumper.
Mullins was very bold indeed when sending Fact To File straight over fences. He does shift to his right over them, which isn’t ideal by any means here but his Savills Chase and Irish Gold Cup placed efforts make a compelling case for favouritism in the Ryanair Chase of 2025.
Il Est Francais, meanwhile, is a new name on Cheltenham race cards for the Festival. An impressive winner of the Kauto Star around Kempton back on Boxing Day 2023, he made a very brave show of things from the front in the King George.
It is a matter of whether those attempt to make all tactics are something Il Est Francais can pull off under James Reveley at Prestbury Park. Co-trainer George has already hinted they won’t ride him any other way, so it gives the rest of the field a strong pace to aim at.
Repeat tactics are fine if they work, but Il Est Francais just didn’t quite get home around the level triangle of Kempton. Cheltenham provides a very different test with the undulations up and down Cleeve Hurdle in and out of the back straight, and the uphill run on the line. It might play into the hands of other runners.
Protekorat Looking for Successful Defence of Ryanair Chase in 2025
Despite such strong French and Irish opposition, the race may not be for export. Last year, Protektorat reinvented himself by landing this after previously trying and failing to stay the Cheltenham Gold Cup trip of three-and-a-quarter miles.
Dan Skelton mounts a defence of the Ryanair crown with him here. As with the other market principals, it hasn’t been all plain sailing for Protektorat since his Festival triumph 12 months ago, but the reigning champ arrives off the back of an impressive win.
That saw the form of Huntingdon’s Peterborough Chase sensationally reversed at a revived Windsor where the Winter Million has now predominantly moved to. Protektorat is a lesson in patience and resilience with Skelton trying to win at Cheltenham’s grand stage with him since 2019.
Either side of a distant second around Windsor, Djelo has looked a progressive horse for the Venetia Williams stable. Make no mistake, the Ryanair Chase of 2025 is not simply about foreign runners. Despite bouncing back with Denman Chase success at Newbury over further last time, Cheltenham betting sites aren’t quite so keen on Djelo.
After top two finishes on all four starts in open company this term, he hasn’t done a lot wrong. The reason for Djelo’s bigger price is probably more down to perceptions than anything else. He’s one of the four with that 166 rating from the assessor, so should have every chance of success.
Despite that, Djelo has double figure Cheltenham odds in the Ryanair. Winning form say small fields suit him better, but he’s joint youngest in this line-up aged seven and worth a shot for one of the other leading yards within a 50-mile radius of Prestbury Park.
De Bromhead Launches Three-Pronged Attack
It’s normally Mullins who comes into Festival races mob-handed. Well, the Ryanair Chase of 2025 contains three from the Henry De Bromhead including the 2023 winner Envoi Allen. Now the elder statesman at 11, he has younger legs to worry about.
A second Down Royal Champion Chase last autumn proves the fire still burns with Envoi Allen. He has a Festival pedigree nothing else in he line-up can match with past Cheltenham results showing the Champion Bumper, Baring Bingham over hurdles and this race all on his CV.
Gold Cup sixth Jungle Boogie is the same age of Envoi Allen, but with far fewer miles on the clock. He is three from five over fences with those outings spread out since New Year’s Day 2022. Jungle Boogie hasn’t been easy to train with just seven career starts under his belt.
The first three of those came curiously in Mullins’ care. Although that brings with it concern, Jungle Boogie ran well in the blue riband last year for a long way. Like erstwhile stable companion Fact To File, he may run here to avoid one of the fearsome Cheltenham horses in Galopin Des Champs.
Ducking another tilt at the Gold Cup for the Ryanair Chase of 2025 isn’t necessarily all plain sailing for Jungle Boogie, though. Heart Wood is the dark horse of De Bromhead’s trio, meanwhile. A close second in the Drinmore at Fairyhouse, he shaped very much as though this trip would suit him that day.
Robcour are big players in Irish horse racing, and although they aren’t as prolific owners as JP McManus or Coolmore, the St Patrick’s Thursday Cheltenham schedule is a big day for them. Heart Wood drops back in distance freshened up after finishing behind Fact To File and Galopin Des Champs over Christmas.
