Cheltenham Festival 2014

Staged, as usual, between Tuesday, March 11 and Friday, March 14, 2014, the 2014 Cheltenham Festival featured 28 races, although the final race on day three, ‘St. Patrick’s Thursday’, was a charity race, the ‘St. Patrick’s Day Derby’, in aid of Cancer Research UK. The Festival was notable for the formalisation of the traditional rivalry between horses trained in Britain and Ireland as ‘The Prestbury Cup’, which Britain won by score of 15-12.

As far as the ‘feature’ races of the week were concerned, Ireland drew first blood, albeit only narrowly, courtesy of Jezki, trained by Jessica Harrington, in the Champion Hurdle, although Britain struck back with Sire De Grugy, trained by Gary Moore, in the Queen Mother Champion Chase, Dynaste, trained by David Pipe, in the Ryanair Chase and More Of That, trained by Jonjo O’Neill, in the World Hurdle.

The ‘Blue Riband’ event, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, was a messy and controversial affair, the result of which was only determined after a lengthy stewards’ enquiry. Ultimately, the placings remain unaltered, with victory going to Lord Windermere, trained by Jim Culloty and ridden by Davy Russell, who passed the post a short-head in front of On His Own, trained by Willie Mullins and ridden by David Casey. The winner hung badly right in the closing stages but, while Casey felt that he would have won with an unimpeded run, the stewards deemed any interference accidental.

Other notable winners during the week included Quevega, trained by Willie Mullins and ridden by Ruby Walsh, who won the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle for the sixth year running, thereby ecplising the record for consecutive Festival wins set by the legendary Golden Miller in the Cheltenham Gold Cup between 1932 and 1936. Elsewhere, a certain Tiger Roll, who would go on to record back-to-back victories in the Grand National in 2018 and 2019, recorded his first Festival win for Gordon Elliot and Davy Russell in the Triumph Hurdle.