{"id":807344,"date":"2026-03-06T06:55:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T06:55:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/807344\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T06:55:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T06:55:29","slug":"cheltenham-2026-willie-mullins-drops-broad-hint-about-gold-cup-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/807344\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheltenham 2026: Willie Mullins drops broad hint about Gold Cup plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Supplementing Fact To File for the Cheltenham Gold Cup has been an option under consideration for the winner of the Irish Gold Cup at the Dublin Racing Festival\"Fact<\/p>\n

Fact To File: Willie Mullins has hinted at likely Cheltenham target(Image: PA)<\/p>\n

Willie Mullins on Thursday dropped the broadest hint that Fact To File will defend his Ryanair Chase title rather than be one of \u201cfour bullets\u201d fired by owner JP McManus at the Cheltenham Gold Cup.<\/p>\n

Supplementing Fact To File for the 3m2f feature has been an option under consideration since the nine-year-old completed a Mullins 1-2-3 in the Irish Gold Cup, defeating Gaelic Warrior and two-time Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs at Leopardstown last month. But, having taken Fact To File out of the Gold Cup after making an initial entry for the race, connections appear likely to stick to their guns and leave other McManus contenders, including last year’s winner Inothewayurthinkin, to tackle next Friday’s feature.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Cheltenham 2026: Willie Mullins talent compared to Faugheen has big race target decided<\/a>READ MORE: Jody Townend prepared for \u2018plenty of stick\u2019 if she can beat brother Paul at Cheltenham<\/a><\/p>\n

And the betting markets supported that approach, suggesting Fact To File will be in action next Thursday while Gaelic Warrior will line up for the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup the following afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cJP has three entries in the Gold Cup,\u201d Mullins told Mirror<\/a> Racing. \u201cThe word this week around Ireland is that [2025 victor] Inothewayurthinkin is working very well.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has Inothewayurthinkin and Spillane\u2019s Tower, and I know – I\u2019ve made no bones about it – that I Am Maximus is well up to Gold Cup standard.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo he has two, if not three, Gold Cup horses there already. Do you think he would want four bullets for one race?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Gaelic<\/p>\n

Gaelic Warrior: appears set to line up in the Cheltenham Gold Cup(Image: PA)<\/p>\n

While Fact To File is odds-on to retain the Ryanair Chase, he can now be backed at 20-1 on betting exchanges for the Gold Cup.<\/p>\n

Gaelic Warrior, meanwhile, is 14-1 for the Ryanair Chase in the exchange market, which also saw Lossiemouth on the drift for the Mares\u2019 Hurdle, making a tilt at Tuesday\u2019s Champion Hurdle look the favoured option.<\/p>\n

Mullins\u2019 Mighty Park will contest the Skybet Supreme Novices\u2019 Hurdle after he did not feature among the confirmations for the Turners Novices\u2019 Hurdle.<\/p>\n

FREE \u00a33 William Hill Shop Bets inside your Mirror every day of Cheltenham<\/p>\n

Don’t miss a FREE \u00a33 shop bet inside your favourite racing paper every day of the Cheltenham festival! Plus, get expert inside from our top tipsters with pullouts every day from Tuesday March 10 – Friday March 13, 2026 covering the runners, riders, and everything you need to make the 102nd Cheltenham festival the biggest ever. Find out more here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Bet 18+ only. Terms and conditions apply. See paper for details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Supplementing Fact To File for the Cheltenham Gold Cup has been an option under consideration for the winner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4107],"tags":[51246,213566,288,50823,1071,1339,79,16,15,2805],"class_list":["post-807344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-cheltenham-festival","tag-cheltenham-gold-cup","tag-horse-racing","tag-jp-mcmanus","tag-racing","tag-ryanair","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-willie-mullins"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116180925213145270","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}