Champion Bumper

Run over an extended two miles on the Old Course at Prestbury Park, the Champion Bumper is currently scheduled as the final race on the second day of the Cheltenham Festival. Although known by a colloquial and, historically, slightly disparaging, title, the race is officially a Standard Open National Hunt (NH) Flat Race and, as such, is the only one in which runners are not required to negotiate obstacles of any kind. It is, nonetheless, a Grade 1 contest, open to horses aged between four and six years, with a weight-for-age allowance for four-year-olds and a weight-for-sex allowance for fillies and mares.

Established, as the Festival Bumper, in 1992, the race has been sponsored by Weatherbys – which provides racing services to the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) – since 1997 and, consequently, run as the ‘Weatherbys Champion Bumper’ ever since. Invariably a valuable source of future winners, at the Cheltenham Festival and elsewhere, the Champion Bumper occasionally throws up an outstanding performer over hurdles and fences. Notable examples include Florida Pearl (1997), Cue Card (2010), Champagne Fever (2012) and Envoi Allen (2023).

The trainer of Florida Pearl and Champagne Fever, Willie Mullins, is the leading trainer in the history of the race with 13 wins, while his son Patrick, with four wins, is the leading jockey. In terms of ten-year trends, three favourites have won in the past decade and no winner in that period has been officially rated less than 120 by the BHA; the highest-rated was, in fact, Facile Vega (138) in 2022.