As ever, the first week in March was dominated by the build-up to the mighty Cheltenham Festival. With each day bringing a new list of entries, fans looked on for news of their favourite stars and their likely festival targets. While most of the leading fancies remain on course, news broke from Ireland that two Festival superstars would miss out. Successful five times at the meeting between them, Marine Nationale and Galopin Des Champs must wait for another year to add to their tallies.
Elsewhere, Lord Allen stepped away from his position as British Horseracing Authority Chairman after only six months in the role, while one of the strangest stories emerged from Wales and involved a Grade 1 winning trainer, a hockey stick, a broken arm, and a cockapoo named Gulliver…
Galopin Ruled Out of Gold Cup Bid
In the most wide-open of years, much of the Cheltenham Festival discussion centres around who will win the showpiece event of the Cheltenham Gold Cup. That will remain the case until the final field faces the starter at 4pm on Friday 13 March. However, we do now know that the 2026 hero will not be the 2023 and 2024 champ Galopin Des Champs.
Following a runners-up effort in 2025, the Willie Mullins star had warmed up for this year’s edition with third-place finishes in the Savills Chase and Irish Gold Cup. While needing to improve on those efforts, he was a general 7/1 chance to bounce back at the scene of his finest hour. Disappointingly for connections and fans, a late setback sees the star chaser miss the Festival. Announcing the news on Friday, 6 March, Mullins stated:
“After working very well on Thursday morning, he wasn’t right on Friday morning and will miss the Gold Cup and the other spring festivals.”
For most trainers, the loss of a two-time winner would represent a hammer blow to their Gold Cup chances. Willie Mullins isn’t most trainers and can still call upon the services of five-time Grade 1 winner, Gaelic Warrior. Second in the Irish Gold Cup last time, the Rich Ricci runner is vying for favouritism with King George hero The Jukebox Man.
Marine Misses Champion Chase Defence
Also out of the meeting is fellow Irish raider, Marine Nationale. Hailing from the yard of Barry Connell, the nine-year-old will be a big miss, having provided two of the Festival’s most memorable moments in recent years.
Making his Cheltenham debut in 2023, Marine Nationale justified his trainer’s unwavering confidence to claim the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. The man in the saddle that day was Michael O’Sullivan – the young rider who so tragically lost his life following a fall at Thurles in 2025.
Returning to Cheltenham only a month after the loss of O’Sullivan, Marine Nationale provided a spectacular tribute to his former partner with a resounding 18-length triumph in the Queen Mother Champion Chase. Scheduled to defend his crown, Barry Connell’s stable star will miss the meeting, having sustained a minor neck injury at the worst possible time.
In the absence of Marine Nationale, the Willie Mullins-trained Majborough is now an odds-on chance to claim the Day 2 feature, with his stablemate Il Etait Temps and Dan Skelton’s L’Eau du Sud the only other runners available to back at a single-figure price.
Lord Allen Ends Six Month Tenure
Amidst the Cheltenham Festival build-up, racing’s leadership received its latest blow with the resignation of Chairman Lord Allen. Stepping into the role in September 2025, there was optimism within the industry that the successful businessman would lead the sport into a bright new future. Barely six months into the role, Lord Allen departs in the wake of data rights rows and a failure of key stakeholders, including the Racecourse Association and Racehorse Owners Association, to agree on governance reforms.
BHA statement on Lord Allen:https://t.co/ErA7C0827A pic.twitter.com/TLV7khKX49
— British Horseracing Authority (@BHAHorseracing) March 3, 2026
In an era of increasing commercial pressures, racing has conspired to cast out a man labelled as “exceptional” at the time of his appointment. Rather than moving forward with a clear direction, the sport remains in limbo, and with a vacancy in one of its most senior roles.
Williams Answers Charges in Court
Meanwhile, at Cardiff Crown Court, Welsh Grand National-winning trainer Evan Williams found himself answering charges of causing grievous bodily harm to a pensioner.
The incident in question occurred on the evening of 4 December 2024 and left 72-year-old Martin Dandridge with two fractures to his left arm and significant bruising. There is no dispute that Dandridge received these injuries on the land of Williams. However, the defence and prosecution have starkly differing explanations.
Dandridge, who was renting a local cottage at the time, maintains that he was set upon by Williams with a hockey stick while out walking his daughter’s dog, a cockapoo named Gulliver. Williams admits tracking Dandridge down due to concerns he may be poaching or scaring the horses with his headlamp. However, the trainer states the pensioner sustained his injuries when tumbling over sideways into a three-foot drainage hole.
Williams strenuously denied charges of causing grievous bodily harm with intent. However, the jury took less than two hours to find him guilty, with sentencing set to take place in April.
