Category: Races

The fourth and final day of the Cheltenham Festival, a.k.a. Gold Cup Day, is the day around which, for many, the whole of the National Hunt season revolves. The first race of the day is the Grade 1 Triumph Hurdle, which is run over two miles and a furlong on the New Course and open to juvenile novice hurdlers, which are all, by definition, four-year-olds.

Inaugurated in 1939, the Triumph Hurdle was run at the long-defunct Hurst Park, near West Molesey, Surrey, until 1962, before being transferred to Cheltenham three years later and becoming part of the Cheltenham Festival in 1968. The race has sometimes, but not often, proved a trial for the Champion Hurdle, with Clair Soleil (1953), Persian War (1967), Kribensis (1988) and Katchit (2007) all going on to victory in the two-mile hurdling championship. Persian War, of course, won the Champion Hurdle three years running, in 1968, 1969 and 1970.

Coincidentally, the leading trainer in the history of the Champion Hurdle, Nicky Henderson, is also the leading trainer in the history of the Triumph Hurdle, having saddled First Bout (1985), Alone Success (1987), Katarino (1999), Zaynar (2009), Soldatino (2010), Peace And Co (2015) and Pentland Hills (2019). As might be expected of an out-and-out test of class, the race has produced five winning favourites in the past decade, plus three other winners at single-figure prices. Pentland Hills and Burning Victory (2020) had yet to be awarded an official rating by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), but the other eight winners in the last 10 years were rated at least 139.

Probably better known by its sponsored title, Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle, the Spa Novices’ Hurdle is run over three miles on the New Course at Cheltenham, where it is currently scheduled as the fourth race on Gold Cup Day at the Cheltenham Festival, immediately before the Cheltenham Gold Cup itself. The race was inaugurated, as a Grade 2 event open to novice hurdlers aged four years and upwards, in 2005, when the Cheltenham Festival was extended from three days to four.

In 2008, the same year that Albert Bartlett took over sponsorship from Brit Insurance, the race was promoted to Grade 1 status and much more recently, in 2023, closed to four-year-olds. In 18 previous runnings, no four-year-old had ever won anyway, so the latter change was largely inconsequential. In fact, nine of the last 10 renewals have been won by horses aged six or seven.

Despite the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle being a Grade 1 contest, the last winning favourite was At Fishers Cross, ridden by Tony McCoy, in 2013, and the last 10 renewals have produced just one winner at a single-figure price. Indeed, winners at 50/1, 33/1 (twice), 18/1 (twice), 16/1 and 14/1 (twice) in the past decade seem to suggest that the result of the race is at least as unpredictable, if not more so, than the notorious Festival handicaps. Rather more predictably, that man Willie Mullins is the leading trainer in the history of the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle, having saddled Penhill (2017), Monkfish (2020) and The Nice Guy (2022).

Nowadays, the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle has the distinction of being the very last race of the four-day, 28-race betting extravaganza that is the Cheltenham Festival or, in other words, the ‘Getting Out Stakes’. The eponymous Martin Pipe, who retired at the end of the 2005/06 National Hunt season, dominated the sport for 20 years and won the trainers’ title a record 15 times.

Run over two miles and four and a half furlongs on the New Course, the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle is open to horses aged four years and upwards, but is restricted to conditional jockeys or, in other words, young professionals who have yet to ride 75 winners. However, following a review by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), in an effort to encourage trainers to book the most experienced conditional jockeys available, from 2019 onwards all weight allowances were abolished.

A typical Festival handicap, with a safety limit of 24, the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle has failed to produce a winning favourite in the past decade, but two second-favourites and two third-favourites have won in that period. Willie Mullins is the leading trainer with five wins, courtesy of Sir Des Champs (2011), Don Poli (2014), Killultagh Vic (2015) andGalopin Des Champs (2021), but Ireland narrowly lead Great Britain 9-7 overall. The race is open to horses officially rated 0-145, but a rating of 135 or higher has been a pre-requisite for victory in recent years.

Known, for sponsorship purposes, as the Mrs. Paddy Power Mares’ Chase, the Liberthine Mares’ Chase is the most recent of recent additions to the Cheltenham Festival, having been run for the first time in 2021. In fact, at that stage, it replaced the Centenary Novices’ Handicap Chase, which had been run on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival since 2005, but was subsequently transferred to Imperial Cup Day at Sandown a few days earlier.

The Liberthine Mares’ Chase is a Grade 2 event run over two miles and four and a half furlongs, and 17 fences, on the New Course at Cheltenham. As the name suggests, the race is restricted to mares, aged five years and upwards, with an official rating of 120 or more, and is currently scheduled as the third race on Gold Cup Day.

After just four renewals so far, meaningful trends are yet to be established, but it interesting to note that all four winners were trained in Ireland – two of them, Colreevy (2021) and Elimay (2022), by Willie Mullins – and none of them were sent off favourite. That said, Limerick Lace (2024), who was sent off 3/1 third favourite, has been the longest-priced winner in the brief history of the Liberthine Mares’ Chase. So far, the race has attracted single-figure fields on three occasions and, even before the final confirmation stage, the 2025 renewal has attracted five fewer entries than the maximum of 24. Granted that the Liberthine Mares’ Chase offers prize money down to eighth place, it is a little disappointing that race is not better subscribed.

The verbosely-titled St. James’s Place Festival Challenge Cup Open Hunters’ Chase is run over an extended three and a quarter miles on the New Course at Cheltenham or, in other words, over the same course and distance as the Cheltenham Gold Cup, which it immediately follows. Established in 1904, but sponsored by wealth management company St. James’s Place since 2016, the race is open to horses aged five years and upwards, which are qualified to run in hunters’ steeplechases and satisfy other entry criteria with regard to their performance in those and/or point-to-point races.

Aside from 2021, when the Cheltenham Festival was staged behind closed doors and amateur jockeys were unable to compete because of public health restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic, the St. James’s Place Festival Challenge Cup is confined to nonprofessional riders.

Rather fittingly, the late Richard Barber still shares the distinction of being leading trainer with Paul Nicholls, for whom he ran a satellite yard at Seaborough in Dorset. Barber saddled Rushing Wild (1992), Fantus (1995, 1997) and Earthmover (1998) and Nicholls later followed suit with Earthmover (2004), Sleeping Night (2005) and Pacha du Polder (2017, 2018). Former top amateur Colman Sweeney, who rode Sleeping Night and Salsify (2012, 2013), remains the leading jockey.

The St. James’s Place Festival Challenge Cup has produced three winning favourites since 2015, but winners at 66/1 (twice), 25/1 and 16/1 (twice) in the same period suggest that the race is not always plain sailing for punters.