Diarmuid Nolan's Lucky 15 For 2025 Cheltenham Festival
The talking is (almost) over. The 2025 Cheltenham Festival is upon us.
I always love the week before the Festival that every single horse is a winner, and hope is at an all-time high.
The Festival is an incredibly exciting few days where 99.99% of us will back far, far more losers than winners on betting sites, yet we all walk away with smiles on our faces.
This year’s Festival is particularly one to behold. The vast majority of races are competitive, and the handicaps offer up, as always, red-hot affairs.
At this point, one of my favourite bets to place is a Festival Lucky 15. I tend to make this a win-only Lucky 15 and then place a small each-way four-fold, just in case I strike absolute gold.
We live perpetual in hope us gamblers, don’t we?
What Is A Lucky 15?
For those that do not know, a Lucky 15 bet involves four different horses in the one betslip with 15 different bets being placed. The different bets placed are: one accumulator, four trebles, six doubles and four singles.
This bet is particularly kind for those on a budget at the Festival, as all you need is one of these horses to win (or place if doing this each-way), to claim a return.
A £1 Lucky 15 on my four selections will cost you £15, but could return a whopping £12,095 with Betfred. This bet is non-runner no-bet also with Betfred so if any of these do not make, the bet will continue unharmed.
Diarmuid Nolan’s 2025 Cheltenham Festival Lucky 15
Henry’s Friend – Ultima Handicap Chase (Tuesday)
For my first selection I thought about The King of Prs for the Grand Annual, who I have fancied for quite a while. However, with the ground continuing to dry at Prestbury Park, I am starting to get extremely sweet on Henry’s Friend.
Ben Pauling has a 40% place rate with his handicap chasers at the Cheltenham Festival, and his yard has continued to go from strength to strength with two Grade 1 wins this season.
Henry’s Friend is a horse who has always shown potential to reach the very top and was quietly fancied for the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury, when a mistake three out cost him any chance.
He put that right with a brilliant win next time out and was immediately put away for this contest thereafter. He looks a noticeably big price at 12/1 with Bet365 and will really love the ground conditions.
(Odds are correct at the time of publication: 2pm, 6 March, 2025)
Comfort Zone – Coral Cup (Wednesday)
On Wednesday, I land on Comfort Zone who is a bit of a statistical pick here, but also a horse full of promise.
Comfort Zone has always threatened to win a big one over hurdles, and this 6-year-old looked better than ever when comfortably winning a Premier Handicap on the flat off a mark of 86 at Naas.
He reappeared over jumps at Christmas time, running a massively eye-catching race and has been put away since with this week in mind.
His trainer, Joseph O’Brien, has a very weird set of stats that can lead you to find profit with Cheltenham Festival odds, and of course a statistical geek like me has tried to unearth them.
O’Brien’s National Hunt team tends to mainly comprise of a batch of ex-flat horses each season (3-year-olds), and he expertly campaigns them towards the spring festivals.
Of course, this is a generalisation as his team is maturing now, but still, three of his four Festival winners were juveniles.
So, at the Cheltenham Festival, if you only count his horses aged four, five or six, who are running in handicaps and also only target these aged horses who have not won a national hunt race in 365 days before their Cheltenham Festival engagement, you would have found two winners and four places from eight qualifiers. A comfortable profit on betting apps.
Comfort Zone meets this odd trend nicely and 16/1 (NRNB) with BetVictor is a lovely price. His UK mark of 137 does not deter me whatsoever.
Jeriko Du Reponet – Pertemps Final (Thursday)
Sometimes you back a horse at Cheltenham based on not much more than potential, and when they wear the JP McManus silks of green and gold, that is probably enough to go on.
Jeriko Du Reponet was a horse who was thought of highly enough last season to be favourite for the Grade 1 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, so he is one I really fancy off a mark of 136 in the Pertemps Final Handicap Hurdle.
He will enjoy the ground, handles the trip and looks a great bet here. In fact, he was my nap on the 2025 Racehour Preview Night (see below). I have a feeling he might just be far too good for his rivals here.
Odds of 6/1 on horse racing betting sites is a lovely price to add into a multiple.
Lucky Place – Stayers Hurdle (Thursday)
I clearly fancy Nicky Henderson to have a good week, and a good Thursday in particular, as I fancy both Jeriko Du Reponet and Lucky Place to find glory at Prestbury Park.
A few of the more fancied types here will not like the drying ground, but Lucky Place definitely will. He was particularly good on this ground the last two times and comes into this as a young, improving horse who could be anything.
The only doubt is whether he will stay or not, which is a big question. However, last time, he gave Gowel Road six pounds and a beating, and that horse is an out-and-out stayer. If you can stay past him, even over a shorter trip. I think you are alright.
Gowel Road franked that form next time out by winning the Cleeve Hurdle, only strengthening our cause. Odds of 7/1 with BetMGM is interesting.
