Cheltenham Day 4 Tips: James Boyle's Best Bets At The 2026 Festival

For today's horse racing tips, our analyst James Boyle looks at day four of the 2026 Cheltenham Festival, with three selections now online.

As always, you’ll find the most up-to-date odds at the best horse racing betting sites, but our tipster’s predictions are researched early in the day and those prices could soon be moved in by the betting public. Odds stated are correct at the time of publishing.

13:20 Cheltenham – Mon Creuset – 0.50pts @ 22/1

Trying to figure out the pecking order of the Mullins runners isn’t simple, never mind the other runners in the field, but I do want to take a punt on Mon Creuset at the 22/1 on offer.

There’s nothing in the way of form logic behind selecting him as he finished fourth of 12 runners in a Naas maiden hurdle when debuting for the yard in January. However, he made a bad error two flights from home and it ensured he wasn’t going to be involved in the finish.

Up until that point, he jumped fine and moved like a horse with a big engine. It’ll be required if he’s to get competitive in a field like this but I get the impression that he’s a nice prospect available at an overly generous price. Time will tell whether that’s right but I’m happy to play.

14:00 Cheltenham – Wilful – 0.50pts @ 11/1

Wilful hasn’t hidden much from the handicapper but I think he might be in a race where the almost all of them are where they should be and I’m happy to take a chance at double-figured prices.

Three runs this season have yielded a third in the Welsh Champion Hurdle off 134, a valuable Ascot handicap win off 135 and a second off 142 when racing for another big pot at Windsor. There’s no doubting he has progressed with racing and who’s to say he can’t kick on again before long.

The rain won’t be a problem, he should take to the C&D and he won’t be far away from the front. If he gets into a nice rhythm and has something left for the hill, he’ll be in the picture late on.

15:20 Cheltenham – Ubatuba – 0.50pts @ 33/1

It’s wishful thinking to back an apprentice rider, who can’t claim an allowance, to win any race at the festival but I wouldn’t be totally shocked if it happened today for Ben Sutton.

Ubatuba, owned by the jockey’s father, is a horse on the up and following a couple of easy hurdling wins at Leicester over the winter, he stepped up in trip and grade at Haydock last month. That led to an excellent second behind Dalston Lad in a race that didn’t favour him.

The way it panned out from a pace perspective and the nature of the track wouldn’t have made his life too easy, but he hit the line hard and had more to offer granted favourable circumstances. They could appear this time around and he’ll love the hill if he’s able to stay in his comfort zone.

Whether he has the class to compete with the best of these is another story and I don’t know if he does. But it’s yet to be proven that he doesn’t and I’ll play the 33/1 in hope of all working out.