Category: Jockeys

The owner of Yotes Court Vineyard, near Maidstone, Kent, Susannah Ricci is the wife of banker Richard ‘Rich’ Ricci, alongside whom she has been a high-profile National Hunt owner since 2005. The majority of her horses are trained in Ireland, by Willie Mullins, but she also has some with Alan King and Venetia Williams in Britain.

As far as the Cheltenham Festival is concerned, Ricci first tasted victory with Mikael D’Haguenet, trained by Mullins and ridden by Ruby Walsh, in the Baring Bingham Novices’ Hurdle in 2009. Her now-familiar green and pink silks have since been carried to victory, at the time of writing, another 24 times at the March showpiece meeting. Ricci has a particularly good record in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle and Champion Hurdle, each of which she has won three times.

In recent seasons, just two Ricci-owned horses have been responsible for six Cheltenham Festival victories between them. The Great Pretender mare Lossiemouth won the Triumph Hurdle in 2023, back-to-back renewals of the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle in 2024 and 2025 and the Champion Hurdle in 2026, while the Maxios gelding Gaelic Warrior won the Arkle Challenge Trophy in 2025 and the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2026, thereby completing a notable feature-race double for his owner.

Ricci had previously won the Champion Hurdle twice before, with Faugheen (2015) and Annie Power (2016), and the Arkle Challenge Trophy once before, with Douvan (2016). Of the remaining feature races at the Festival, Ricci has also won the Ryanair Chase twice, with Vautour (2016) and Min (2020). Six times a Grade 1 winner over fences in Ireland, Chacun Pour Soi was sent off as odds-on favourite for the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 2021, but found little on the run-in and eventually finished third, beaten a length and a half by the winner, Put The Kettle On.

Until the end of the 2025/26 National Hunt season, when he was replaced by Harry Cobden, Mark Walsh held the enviable position of retained jockey the leading owner John ‘J.P’ McManus on both sides of the Irish Sea. On British soil, Kildare-born Walsh took over from Barry Geraghty in the role following his retirement on July 11, 2020 but, by that stage, he had already ridden four winners at the Cheltenham Festival.

Walsh opened his Festival account on Bleu Berry, owned by Luke McMahon and trained by Willie Mullins, in the Coral Cup Handicap Hurdle in 2018. The following year, he added two more Festival winners to his career tally, notably guiding Espoir D’Allen, owned by McManus and trained by Gavin Cromwell, to an impressive, 15-length win in the Champion Hurdle. A year later still, Walsh rode Aramax, owned by McManus and trained by Gordon Elliott, to victory in the Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle and, since succeeding Geraghty, has won the same race another three times, courtesy of Brazil (2022), Puturhandstogether (2025) and Saratoga (2026).

All told, at the time of writing, Walsh has ridden a career total 16 Cheltenham Festival winners. Espoir D’Allen aside, highlights include winning the Stayers’ Hurdle on Sire Du Berlais, trained by Elliott, in 2023, the Ryanair Chase on Fact To File, trained by Willie Mullins, in 2025 and the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Inothewayurthinkin, trained by Cromwell, also in 2025.

Inothewayurthinkin was supplemented for the Cheltenham Gold Cup by McManus, at a cost of £25,000, and duly foiled the hat-trick attempt of odds-on favourite Galopin Des Champs, trained by Willie Mullins and ridden by Paul Townend, winning readily by six lengths. Walsh said later, “I didn’t want to take him [Galopin Des Champs] on too early, because we all know how he stays up the hill, but my lad just carried me there and winged the second-last and went by him, so I just kept kicking because my lad stays all day as well.”

Born in Lydney, Gloucestershire on April 17, 1962, Paul Nicholls was stable jockey to the late David Barons in Kingsbridge, Devon, for three years and, following his retirement from the saddle, due to injury, in 1989, assistant trainer to the West Country handler for another two before setting up in his own right in 1991. Nicholls started his training career at Manor Farm, in Ditcheat, Somerset, where he rented a yard from the late Paul Barber, in October 1991. He saddled his first winner, Olveston, owned by his mother, Margaret, and ridden by Hywel Davies, in a novices’ handicap chase at Hereford on December 20, 1991. A national hunt rather than flat trainer, he has nevertheless has some flat horses, which he entered into Royal Ascot and the like (Zarkandar etc).

A little over three decades later, Nicholls is widely recognised as the leading trainer of his generation, having won the National Hunt Trainers’ Championship 14 times between 2005/06 and 2022/23, including seven titles in a row between 2005/06 and 2011/12. Indeed, his winning streak has been interrupted by just two other trainers, Nicky Henderson and Willie Mullins, behind whom he also lies third in the all-time list at the Cheltenham Festival.

Nicholls announced himself to the Prestbury Park faithful in some style back in 1999, winning the Arkle Challenge Trophy with Flagship Uberalles, the Queen Mother Champion Chase with Call Equiname and the Cheltenham Gold Cup with See More Business. Fittingly, the latter was co-owned by his landlord, Paul Barber, and John Keighley. At the last count, Nicholls had increased his career tally to 49 winners at the Cheltenham Festival. He has won the Arkle Challenge Trophy again, with Azertyuiop (2003), the Queen Mother Champion Chase five times more, with Azertyuiop (2004), Master Minded (2008, 2009), Dodging Bullets (2015) and Politologue (2020), and the Cheltenham Gold Cup three times more, with Kauto Star (2007, 2009), Denman (2008).

Born in Baughurst, Hampshire on August 14, 1989, Nico de Boinville joined Nicky Henderson, at Seven Barrows in Lambourn, Berkshire, as a stable lad in 2009. He said later, “It was all about seeing where I could go with it”, and for his first three seasons he appeared to be going nowhere in a hurry. Between May 2009 and April 2012 he had just 30 rides and, except for two wins on Barber Shop, owned by the late Queen Elizabeth II, in hunter chases at Fontwell in February 2012, little to show for his efforts.

Disillusioned with his lack of progress, at the age of 22, De Boinville tendered his resignation with a view to returning to France, where he had gained limited experience of working with racehorses during his gap year. Luckily, Henderson refused to accept his resignation, a week later De Boinville rode Petit Robin to victory, by a nose, in the Listed Sportingbet Handicap Hurdle at Sandown Park and the rest, as they say, is history.

De Boinville rode his first Cheltenham Festival winner, Whisper, trained by Henderson, in 2014. The following year, having only recently ridden out his claim, he rode his second, Coneygree, trained by Mark Bradstock, in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. At the start of the 2015/16 National Hunt season, De Boinville replaced Barry Geraghty as stable jockey at Seven Barrows and has since ridden 14 more Cheltenham Festival winners. Of the ‘feature’ races, aside from the Cheltenham Gold Cup, he has won the Queen Mother Champion Chase three times, on Sprinter Sacre (2016) and Altior (2018, 2019), and the Champion Hurdle once, on Constitution Hill (2023).

The Henderson Family has a long association with the Cheltenham Festival insofar as the late Johnny Henderson, father of Nicky, was a founder member of the Racecourse Holdings Trust – now Jockey Club Racecourses – which purchased Cheltenham Racecourse in 1963, thereby safeguarding its future. Indeed, Nicky Henderson, who has won the National Hunt Trainers’ Championship six times, most recently in 2019/20, is also the second most successful trainer in the history of the Cheltenham Festival, behind only Willie Mullins, with 73 winners.

Born in Lambeth, London on December 10, 1950, Henderson was assistant trainer to the legendary Fred Winter, at Uplands Stables in Upper Lambourn, for four years before taking out a training licence in his own right and saddling his first winner, Dukery, at Uttoxeter on October 14, 1978. By the time he moved from his original base at Windsor House Stables in nearby Lambourn to his current home at Seven Barrows in 1992, he had already made a significant impact at the Cheltenham Festival.

Henderson famously coaxed the talented, but fragile, See You Then to win the Champion Hurdle three years running, in 1985, 1986 and 1987, but in the first decade and a half of his career he also won the Stayers’ Hurdle with Rustle in 1989 and the Queen Mother Champion Chase with Remittance Man in 1992. In that same period, he also won the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle twice, the Triumph Hurdle twice and the Arkle Challenge Trophy.

In his career as a whole, Henderson has won the Champion Hurdle a record nine times, with See You Then (1985, 1986, 1987), Punjabi (2009), Binocular (2010), Buveur d’Air (2017, 2018), Epatante (2020) and Constitution Hill (2023), and the Queen Mother Champion Chase a joint-record six times, with Remittance Man (1992), Finian’s Rainbow (2012), Sprinter Sacre (2013, 2016), Altior and (2018, 2019). He has also won the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Stayers’ Hurdle and Ryanair Chase twice apiece.