Ben Pauling 2026 Cheltenham Festival stable tour

Ben Pauling has described his squad for this year’s Cheltenham Festival as “the best team I’ve had”, with the Naunton Downs handler admitting he will be disappointed if he didn’t have at least one winner. 

Speaking at a media morning at his yard, organised by The Jockey Club, on Monday, Pauling shared the inside track on his contenders heading to Prestbury Park in March, headlined by Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup contender The Jukebox Man. 

Having endured a hugely successful season already, and substantial strength in depth to his team, it is easy to see why Pauling is bullish about his chances across the four days. 

Pauling has four Cheltenham Festival winners next to his name - Willoughby Court (2017), Le Breuil (2019), Global Citizen (2022) and Shakem Up’arry (2024) - and The Jukebox Man looks one of his best chances this year. The Ladbrokes King George VI Chase winner was in high demand with the media this morning, with owner Harry Redknapp also in attendance.

Pauling said: “This is the best team I’ve had going into The Festival. I’m determined not to take horses that I don’t think are going to run well, but with Aintree being a proper month from Cheltenham you can roll the dice with a lot of them again. 

“You don’t want to be afraid of that this year. There’s going to be a lot less ‘oh I’m saving them for Aintree’ this year because I think you can have a good go at both of them.

“But it’s by far and away our best team. There will be horses going to Cheltenham who will be our third, fourth or fifth best chance of the week who would normally be leading the way. That in itself says that we’ve got a better team."

Below, Pauling runs though his leading players. For more Cheltenham Festival stable tours, click here.

Race: Mrs Paddy Power Mares' Chase.

“She whacked a joint earlier in the season but all of a sudden she's just come alive again. So, I'd say she's going to be spot on.

“She will go to the Mares’ Chase with a great chance. She ran incredibly well there last year considering the season she'd had. She obviously acts around the track. She won there on New Year's Day.

“She was third in the mares' novice hurdle last year when she was not right. If she goes there this year, she'll be bang on.”

Race: Ryanair Chase or Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup.

“He came back in and looked unbelievable. And he was strong, he was big, he was moving well. And he went to Carlisle and just looked rusty. 

"He then went to the Betfair Chase and I honestly thought down the back that Grey Dawling is is going to have to go some because we've seen an improved horse here. And then as he turned in, he lugged left and just flopped home and made everything look hard work. Ben got off him and said, he hung left the whole way up the home straight. Ben said, he said he'd never done that before in his life. It must be something. I said, how was his wind? He said, fine. But Tim Radford was insistent that we should just get his wind checked. There must be something. Let's get his wind checked. We got his wind checked and his soft palate is really unstable. So we lasered it and did what's called the Llewellyn. And I firmly believe after any soft palate operation, they have to then believe in themselves. 

"I took him to Lambourn to do a piece of work and it was lethargic. And I said to Tim, look, he hasn't worked the house down. He hasn't lost any ground on the horse he's worked with, but it was hard work. But that piece will pull him forward. 

"If I could tell you now to take, you know, we'd take him away again and probably see a much better piece of work. But we might as well get him and run him. I was keen to go to the Denman Chase. Tim was keen to go to the Fleur de Lys. And we're very much a team. We went to the Fleur de Lys, and gave 8lb to Protektorat. 

"He's come out of that race and it's like a bull in a china shop and a totally different animal. His work has been brilliant. He worked well at Warwick on Friday night. I just think he's back. And I had him down last year as an equal to The Jukebox Man the whole way through the season. In fact, Handstands has by far the best form. You know, he's beaten Jango Baie in the Sydney Banks. He's beaten him in the Scilly Isles. Jango Baie is 9-2 for a Gold Cup and we're 100-1. I'm not saying we're going to go to the Gold Cup because I think it's a competitive race. And there's a lot of people that say he's a two and a half miler.

"I've entered him in the National because I think he's incredibly well handicapped and I think he'll stay all day. But if the Ryanair cut up a bit, he would be a genuine runner in that, and I'd be very surprised if he wasn't competitive. We night even think about a pair of cheekpieces.”

Race: Sun Racing Plate Handicap Chase or Jack Richards Novices' Limited Handicap Chase.

“I suppose this is going to be a lot of a big discussion with the owners (Mal Bloodstock), who are some of my best owners, they're brilliant people, they understand the game and they're very, very easy to deal with. They listen, they want to learn with you and make decisions quietly. We've said all season that he's going to be better over a trip.

“My thinking is that he's now got an entry in the Jack Richards, and he's got an entry in the Plate. A novice in the Plate is probably slightly feeling right to me.

“He sort of ended up running four times by default and I was never thinking, I want to get him in the Plate. He's got hardy, handicap form and I think that what he doesn't want is a three-runner race where he's floating around at the back on heavy ground and uncompetitive.

“He's an arrogant sod and he's got loads of ability. So the Plate is sort of where I'm probably leaning. But the owners might say no, he's a novice.”

Race: Jack Richards Novices' Limited Handicap Chase.

“He's only got the one entry (in the Jack Richards). So if he's in good form, there's only one place he goes."

Race: Turners Novices' Hurdle or Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle.

“He's done nothing wrong at all. He obviously came out of the Maxwell dispersal. I didn't really know much about him, but he seemed a nice type. ludlow was grand, Ascot was good and it just seems like he's come alive. He seems incredibly fresh and well in himself. He's in the Turners and the Albert Bartlett. I'm not certain he's an Albert Bartlett horse. He might end up running in it, but I've not made my mind up yet. I think he'll stay every yard but doesn't necessarily need a slog.”

Race: Turners Novices' Hurdle.

“Harry’s got another nice horse, Taurus Bay - he's obviously in the Turners. I think he's genuinely out of the top drawer as well. He's definitely going to be a better horse with another summer on his back. He's always been a horse, I've been telling Harry, that we've got to mind the whole time, because too much racing and he'll just melt away. But we'll see how he is over the next two weeks. And if he's absolutely cherry-ripe, he'll join the team of Cheltenham in the Turners. And if he isn't, he'll go to Aintree.”

Race: Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup.

“I think Harry (Redknapp, owner) will agree, this whole season was geared around getting him to the King George. It was a nerve-wracking return in the autumn because of course he'd had his injury and you never know how they're going to react to having had an injury. And it was a steady start. We didn't just drop the handbrake and drive on flat out.

“We brought him back slowly and we were nervous that he wasn't fit enough for Haydock, but he did it nicely. And obviously the King George was an exceptional day. But out the back of the King George, Harry and I had already discussed it for a long time that if we were lucky enough to run well in the King George, we'd probably have to look at a Gold Cup.

“So that's what we've done. He's come out the King George very well. Actually, better than I ever expected. Had I wanted to, I probably could have put a Denman Chase in there or something, but I don't think we need to. We know him very well. We know when he's right, what he needs to be doing to be absolutely cherry-ripe.

“And so having a horse of his calibre in the form, touch wood, that he seems to be in at the moment going into the Gold Cup, is an exceptionally exciting thing for me, for Soph, for the whole team here. But to be doing it with a man like Harry, who not only is a bit of a national treasure, but we've had a great relationship with for the last, I think, seven or eight years now. And it really has gone very well.

“It's a special thing for all of us. And I just hope we can get him there in the form that he can be, because then he's going to give us one hell of a day and hopefully a good opportunity to pick up the big one.”

“I personally think it'll be a much better test for The Jukebox Man than the King George. He won the Kauto Star, so we think, well, grand, he likes Kempton. And I do think he likes Kempton. I think this horse likes any track.

“I think he's very uncomplicated. He goes through his races sweetly. He jumps, touch wood very, very well. And that is key to these top class three mile chases or three mile plus. You have to be able to jump and travel. If you're behind the bridle or you're missing fences, it's going to be hard work.

“I think from the back of three out, I honestly thought he'd go and win the King George as it was panning out by two or three relatively comfortably. And between the back of three out and to the last, they didn't just gain on us. He was behind again.

“It was only his tenacity and will to win that got his head back in front of the line. It wasn't because he was, you know, a speedy horse that just took off. That was asking every question you possibly could of the horse, and he somehow came up with the answers.

“I personally think that the one thing I'm not deluded about is that the performance he's put up to date doesn't win a Gold Cup traditionally. You could also make a case for seven or eight horses in the Gold Cup. That's why it's going to be such a fascinating race again. It's a little bit like the King George.

“And now what people will say is there's not a standout, and that's right. But you can bet your bottom dollar that on the 13th of March, four o'clock in the afternoon, there will be a new standout, because something will have to step out of that crowd to go and win the race. And I jolly well hope it's us and we'll be doing everything we can.

“But if it's not, it's not. If he's in the best form he can be and we can do no more, I said the exact same for the King George. The King George, we had a lot more questions to answer.

“We were still only rated 155. Realistically, we hadn't beaten the novice season we'd had with only two runs. And yes, there was some nice form in behind, but it was hardly Grade 1 form.

“And I was very well aware of that. And he had to step forward 15 pounds, and he did. So faced with another task, if he can improve again, he's going to be competitive, but he will need to.

“He is the first proper open Grade One horse that we've had. I think there's some others around here, but he's the one that stands out. And personally, without sounding like... I don't find the attention any issue at all, because we've been training 13 years.

“We kept finding Grade One novice horses that, for whatever reason, didn't find their way into Grade 1 chases or hurdles in open company. And it wasn't a frustration for me, but it was an annoyance, because they weren't braking with the same injury and we were just doing things wrong. It was the stupid little things that were stopping them.

“And I suppose having a horse of this calibre and having a horse that Harry owns going into a Gold Cup with so much promise is nothing but an exciting situation for us to be in, really. We're enjoying it and we're very fortunate, but we're not going there with one dart.

“We've got a lot of nice horses that are coming to the fore this season and I think we're going to field a relatively small, sort of 10, 12, maybe 14-strong team for Cheltenham, but I would expect every single one of them to go there and run a good race.

“If anything's off the bridle halfway, then they're just not right. They're good horses and they deserve to be there, so it's not just one-horse team, hopefully, but it's obviously spearheaded by him and he's going to take a lot of the limelight, and rightly so. It's more than just racing now, though, with the combination that you've got with what you did at Christmas.”

Race: Debenhams Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Challenge Cup Handicap Chase.

“He's got the profile of, you know, an improving novice, which is always helpful in a race like the Grand Annual. He didn't turn up first two runs of the season, to be honest. I thought he was going to be one of my best novice chasers and after he ran at Lingfield, I was mightily disappointed. I thought that he was going nowhere. And then Ascot, he sort of looked a little bit lethargic early doors and then all of a sudden, I think the race set up very nicely for him. And he won and looked a much better horse around Sandown the other day. So, we'll go there, we'll look forward to it. If he gets a nice passage, he's in very good order and he'll have a right squeak.”