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Champion Bumper 2026: Cheltenham Festival Betting Preview
Race Details:
Date: 11 March 2026
Grade: Grade 1
Open To: Four to six years old
Track: Turf
Length: 3,298 Metres
Location: United Kingdom
Champion Bumper 2026: Cheltenham Festival Betting Preview
The Only Race at the Festival With No Obstacles is Also the One Willie Mullins Has Made His Personal Property
Wednesday, 11 March 2026 | 5:20 PM | Cheltenham Racecourse, Prestbury Park, Gloucestershire
Weatherbys Champion Bumper (In Memory of Sir Johnny Weatherby) | Grade 1 | National Hunt Flat Race | 2 Miles 87 Yards | Old Course | 4-6yo
The Weatherbys Champion Bumper is the strangest race at the Cheltenham Festival and also one of the most fascinating. No fences. No hurdles. Just two miles of flat racing on the Old Course between horses who have never jumped an obstacle in competition and may never jump one at all. It is a National Hunt flat race, a "bumper" in the parlance of the sport, and it exists to identify the raw talent that will power the next generation of hurdlers and chasers. Florida Pearl won it in 1997 and went on to win the Royal & SunAlliance Chase. Cue Card won it in 2010 and became a King George VI Chase champion. Envoi Allen won it in 2019 and was briefly the most exciting young horse in training. The Champion Bumper is where careers begin, reputations are made, and trainers stake their claims on horses who might one day win Gold Cups.
It is also the race that Willie Mullins has turned into his personal exhibition. The master of Closutton has won the Champion Bumper fourteen times, including five of the last six renewals and six of the last eight. No other race at the entire Cheltenham Festival belongs to one trainer to the same degree. Mullins won it with Jasmin De Vaux in 2024 and Bambino Fever in 2025, and he has seven entries again this year headed by the explosive Love Sign d'Aunou. The phrase "Willie's in the bumper" has become a Festival catchphrase, uttered with a mixture of resignation and admiration by punters who know that backing against Mullins in this race is usually a losing proposition.
Thirty-six horses have been entered for the 2026 renewal, which closes out the Day 2 card at 5:20 PM. The field will be reduced to a maximum of around twenty runners, and the vast majority of entries will come from Irish yards. Ireland has won nine of the last ten Champion Bumpers and twenty-six of the thirty-three runnings since the race was first held in 1992. This is an Irish race that happens to be run in England, and the dominance shows no sign of abating.
The Ante-Post Market
Time Stamp: Saturday, March 8, 2026, 12:00 PM ET
Odds Subject to Change
Source: Oddschecker / Paddy Power
Love Sign d'Aunou 4.00 (3/1) | The Irish Avatar 6.00 (5/1) | Panda Boy 8.00 (7/1) | Keep Him Company 10.00 (9/1) | Broadway Ted 12.00 (11/1) | Bass Hunter 14.00 (12/1) | Con's Roc 16.00 (14/1) | Quiryn 16.00 (14/1) | Our Trigger 20.00 (16/1) | The Mourne Rambler 20.00 (16/1)
The market is headed by a Mullins horse, as it usually is. Love Sign d'Aunou was cut from 20/1 to 5/1 after his sensational debut at Naas in January, and has since been trimmed further to around 3/1 in non-runner-no-bet markets. Behind him, the market splits between several once-raced or twice-raced horses whose ability is mostly based on impression rather than hard form data, which is the nature of bumper racing. The trend analysts have flagged an interesting wrinkle: the Mullins horse who starts favourite in the bumper is not always the one who wins. On ten of the fourteen occasions Mullins won this race when saddling multiple runners, his market leader was beaten on seven of those occasions. That makes the second and third Mullins runners genuinely interesting betting propositions.
Love Sign d'Aunou: The Naas Sensation
Love Sign d'Aunou became the Champion Bumper favourite when he demolished his opponents by twenty-four lengths on his rules debut at Naas on January 25th. Carrying the Rich and Susannah Ricci silks under Patrick Mullins, the five-year-old point-to-point winner galloped his rivals into submission from the front in a manner that immediately drew comparisons with previous Mullins bumper stars. Patrick Mullins said afterwards that the horse was "relentless" with "a really high cruising speed" and compared him to Florida Pearl, one of the most famous Champion Bumper winners in the race's history.
The concern is experience. Love Sign d'Aunou has had just one run under rules, and the Champion Bumper trends are not kind to horses with minimal racecourse experience. Eight of the last ten winners had already won a Listed or Graded bumper before arriving at Cheltenham. The bumper is a race where the pace is deceptive, the Cheltenham hill sorts out those who have been travelling well from those with genuine reserves, and the noise of the crowd at 5:20 PM on a Festival Wednesday is unlike anything a horse encounters on a quiet January afternoon at Naas. At 3/1, the price reflects both the quality of the Naas performance and the historical risk of backing a once-raced horse in the biggest bumper of the year.
The Irish Avatar: The Trends Pick
The bookies.com trends analysis identified The Irish Avatar as the horse the data points towards most strongly. Willie Mullins' Gigginstown House Stud-owned five-year-old won at Navan on debut over a galloping, undulating track that bears more resemblance to Cheltenham than most Irish courses. He is the right age, trained by the right trainer, and is expected to start at a single-figure price. The trends analysis noted that whether he goes off favourite will depend on jockey bookings, but there is a strong case that The Irish Avatar, rather than Love Sign d'Aunou, could be the Mullins runner to follow.
This fits a recurring Champion Bumper pattern. Mullins tends to be mob-handed in this race, and his stable jockey or most prominent rider often ends up on the horse the public fancies rather than the one Mullins privately considers his best chance. On seven of the ten occasions he won with multiple runners, the winner was not the market leader from his yard. The Irish Avatar at 5/1 or bigger looks the kind of Mullins runner who could slip under the radar while Love Sign d'Aunou attracts the attention.
Keep Him Company: Elliott's Progressive Challenger
Gordon Elliott has won the Champion Bumper twice in the last thirteen renewals, and his leading contender for 2026 is the Gigginstown-owned Keep Him Company. The five-year-old has won both his starts, at Fairyhouse in November and Leopardstown in December, and looks a rapidly improving sort who handles big-field racing well. Elliott also holds entries for Broadway Ted, who won at the DRF, Charismatic Kid, and With Nolimit, giving him multiple shots at the target. At 9/1, Keep Him Company represents the strongest Irish challenge outside the Mullins yard.
The British Challenge: Bass Hunter and Others
Britain rarely wins the Champion Bumper. The last British-trained winner was Cheltenham specialist Flakey Dove in 2002, and only one British horse has won in the last thirteen runnings. The home challenge in 2026 is led by Chris Gordon's Bass Hunter, a six-year-old who has won both his races impressively and is the most talked-about British bumper horse of the season. Dan Skelton has entered four runners including The Skecher and Vango Can Go, while the Fakenham winner Stattler (formerly trained by Mullins) adds intrigue. At 12/1, Bass Hunter offers value if the British drought is to end, but the historical dominance of Irish trainers in this race makes any home runner a speculative bet.
Trends and Statistics
Time Stamp: Saturday, March 8, 2026, 12:00 PM ET
Odds Subject to Change
Source: Oddschecker
Willie Mullins has won fourteen of the thirty-three Champion Bumpers ever run, including five of the last six. His dominance is unprecedented for any trainer in any single race at the Festival. The second most successful trainer is Gordon Elliott with two wins. Patrick Mullins has ridden four winners, more than any other jockey.
Ireland has won twenty-six of thirty-three runnings and nine of the last ten. The only British-trained winner in the last decade was Doyen Quest's Music Drive in 2022 (if confirmed), and the general pattern is that the Irish bring superior bumper talent to Cheltenham because bumper racing is a far more established part of the Irish programme than the British one.
Five-year-olds dominate, winning fifteen of the last twenty-two renewals. Only three four-year-olds have ever won the race: Rhythm Section (1993), Dato Star (1995), and Cue Card (2010). Six-year-olds have won occasionally, but the sweet spot is clearly five years old, which favours Love Sign d'Aunou, The Irish Avatar, Keep Him Company, and Broadway Ted.
Eight of the last ten winners had already won a Listed or Graded bumper. This is a significant stat that works against Love Sign d'Aunou and several other leading fancies who have won only at maiden level. Horses who have been tested in stronger company and proven they can handle pressure tend to cope better with the unique demands of the Champion Bumper.
The favourite has a reasonable record, winning five of the last ten renewals. However, when Mullins saddles multiple runners, the favourite from his yard is often not the winner. Punters who back the second or third Mullins runner in the market have historically been rewarded more often than those who follow the money to his first choice.
Race History
The Champion Bumper was first run in 1992, making it one of the newer additions to the Cheltenham Festival programme. It was introduced to provide a championship event for National Hunt flat racing, a discipline that serves as the nursery for future jump racing stars. The race has been sponsored by Weatherbys since 2014 and is now run in memory of Sir Johnny Weatherby, reflecting the organisation's long association with the sport's administration.
Run over two miles and 87 yards on the Old Course, it is the only race at the Cheltenham Festival in which no obstacles are jumped. Horses must be aged between four and six, and the race is restricted to those who have not competed over hurdles or fences. It closes out the Day 2 card and typically attracts large fields of up to twenty runners, with the pace steadily building through the first mile before the race explodes into life on the final turn.
The roll of honour is a who's who of future National Hunt stars. Florida Pearl (1997) went on to win the Royal & SunAlliance Chase. Alexander Banquet (1998) won the Irish Grand National. Cue Card (2010) became a King George champion. Envoi Allen (2019) was the most exciting young horse in training before injury intervened. Facile Vega (2022) went on to Champion Hurdle contention. The Champion Bumper does not just identify talent - it identifies the kind of raw ability that translates across disciplines, from flat racing to hurdling to chasing, and the winners frequently go on to compete at the highest level of the sport for years to come.
Quick Reference: Key Odds
Time Stamp: Saturday, March 8, 2026, 12:00 PM ET
Odds Subject to Change
Source: Oddschecker / Paddy Power
Love Sign d'Aunou 4.00 (3/1) | Trainer: Willie Mullins | Jockey: Patrick Mullins
The Irish Avatar 6.00 (5/1) | Trainer: Willie Mullins | Jockey: TBC
Panda Boy 8.00 (7/1) | Trainer: TBC | Jockey: TBC
Keep Him Company 10.00 (9/1) | Trainer: Gordon Elliott | Jockey: TBC
Broadway Ted 12.00 (11/1) | Trainer: Gordon Elliott | Jockey: TBC
Bass Hunter 14.00 (12/1) | Trainer: Chris Gordon | Jockey: TBC
Con's Roc 16.00 (14/1) | Trainer: TBC | Jockey: TBC
Quiryn 16.00 (14/1) | Trainer: Willie Mullins | Jockey: TBC
Our Trigger 20.00 (16/1) | Trainer: Willie Mullins | Jockey: TBC
The Mourne Rambler 20.00 (16/1) | Trainer: Noel Meade | Jockey: TBC
2025 Champion Bumper Result
1st Bambino Fever (5.00, 4/1) - Willie Mullins / Jody Townend
2nd Doyen d'Ainay - Distance: 3½L
3rd Music Drive
Last 10 Winners
2025: Bambino Fever 5.00 (4/1) - Willie Mullins
2024: Jasmin De Vaux 5.50 (9/2) - Willie Mullins
2023: A Dream To Share 17.00 (16/1) - Willie Mullins
2022: Facile Vega 2.00 (Evs f) - Willie Mullins
2021: Kilcruit 5.00 (4/1) - Willie Mullins
2020: Ferny Hollow 5.00 (4/1) - Willie Mullins
2019: Envoi Allen 5.00 (4/1) - Gordon Elliott
2018: Relegate 17.00 (16/1) - Willie Mullins
2017: Fayonagh 10.00 (9/1) - Gordon Elliott
2016: Ballyandy 5.00 (4/1) - Nigel Twiston-Davies
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