Cheltenham Festival

The 2012 Cheltenham Gold Cup, once again, featured three of the first four home in the 2011 renewal, Long Run, Kauto Star and What A Friend, with Denman having been retired, due to injury, the previous December. Defending champion Long Run was sent off 7/4 favourite, despite having been beaten by Kauto Star in both the Betfair Chase at Haydock in November and the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day, with his old rival at 3/1 and 8/1 bar the front pair.

In any event, it was one of the 8/1 co-third favourites, the Lexus Chase winner, Synchronised, who upstaged his apparently more illustrious market rivals. Owned by J.P. McManus, trained by Jonjo O’Neill and ridden by Tony McCoy, the nine-year-old was not foot perfect at his fences, but led early on the run-in and kept on gamely to beat 50/1 outsider The Giant Bolster by 2¼ lengths. Long Run finished third, a further three-quarters of a length away, having found just one pace in the closing stages. Kauto Star, running in his sixth consecutive Cheltenham Gold Cup, failed to finish, having been pulled up before halfway.

Sadly, victory in one of the major steeplechases in Britain was to prove a swansong for Synchronised, who would lose his life in the other, the Grand National, less than a month later. Attempting to become the first horse since the legendary Golden Miller, in 1934, to win both races in the same season, Synchronised fell at Becher’s Brook on the first circuit at Aintree, but fractured a leg five fences later, when running loose, and was humanely euthanised. McManus said afterwards, “It remains difficult to understand how it happened, but regrettably it did.”

The late Alistair Down once wrote of the 2011 Cheltenham Gold Cup, “…never have I known a Gold Cup winners’ enclosure where connections of the second, third and fourth all behaved as if they had won the race. And so sincerely meant it.” Indeed, the second, third and fourth, Denman, Kauto Star and What A Friend, were all trained by Paul Nicholls and ridden by Sam Thomas, Ruby Walsh and Daryl Jacob, respectively. Also present in the 13-strong field, in what was an outstanding renewal of the ‘Blue Riband’ event, were the defending champion Imperial Commander and the future Grand National winner Neptune Collonges, who completed the Nicholls-trained quartet.

Victory, though, went to a six-year-old – the first of his age group to prevail since Mill House in 1963 – in the form of Long Run, trained by Nicky Henderson and ridden by Sam Waley-Cohen. A comfortable, 12-length winner of the rearranged King George VI Chase on Boxing Day, Long Run was sent off 7/2 favourite at Cheltenham, despite facing the winner of the last four Gold Cups.

Denman and Kauto Star, both 11-year-olds, led over the third-last, at which point Imperial Commnder weakened out of contention and was eventually pulled up, having gone lame. They continued to duel for the lead but, between the final two fences, were joined, and passed, by Long Run, who stayed on strongly to beat Denman by 7 lengths. Kauto Star just held third, 4 lengths further back, and just a nose ahead of his stable companion What A Friend. Thus, Waley-Cohen became the first amateur jockey to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup since the late Jim Wilson, on Little Owl, in 1981

The 2010 Cheltenham Gold Cup featured 11 runners, including Kauto Star and Denman, who, between them, had won the last three renewals, and the 2009 Grand National winner Mon Mome. Kauto Star was sent off 8/11 favourite, with Denman at 4/1 and Imperial Commander at 7/1, but it was the latter who came to the fore, taking the lead at the second-last fence and being driven clear on the run-in to win, going away by 7 lengths. In so doing, Imperial Commander became a first Cheltenham Gold Cup winner for trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies and jockey Paddy Brennan.

Few would begrudge Imperial Commander his victory, after he had been just touched off by Kauto Star, by the minimum margin, a nose, in the Betfair Chase at Haydock the previous November, having fought what the ‘Racing Post’ described as a ‘tremendous duel’ on the run-in. However, he had finished tailed off behind Kauto Star in the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day, hence what turned out to be a generous starting price.

Defending champion Kauto Star made an uncharacteristic blunder at the eighth fence and, although given time to recover by jockey Ruby Walsh, was never travelling particularly sweetly. Tony McCoy, aboard Denman, seized the initiative heading down the hill for the final time, but was stalked into the fourth-last fence by the strong-travelling Imperial Commander. At that obstacle, Kauto Star, who was already under pressure, took a crashing fall, leaving the front pair to fight out the finish.

Once Imperial Commander hit the front two out, the race was effectively over, although Denman still finished the proverbial country mile – or 23 lengths, to be precise – ahead of the third horse home, Mon Mome. The 2009 Grand National winner was all but tailed off at one stage, but stayed on strongly in the closing stages to fill the minor placing.

The 2025 Cheltenham Gold Cup featured just nine runners, the smallest field since Don Cossack justified favouritism against eight rivals in 2016. The betting market also suggested that it was a less competitive renewal than in recent years, with the hat-trick-seeking Galopin Des Champs sent off at 8/13 favourite, King George VI Chase winner Banbridge at 13/2, Inothewayurthinkin at 15/2, Monty’s Star at 8/1 and 14/1 bar that quartet.

Owned by J. P. McManus, trained by Gavin Cromwell, in Navan, Co. Meath, and ridden by Mark Walsh, Inothewayurthinkin had 7¼ lengths to find with the favourite on their running in the Irish Gold Cup at Punchestown in early February. However, despite being officially rated 17lb inferior to Galopin Des Champs, the improving seven-year-old tackled his main market rival approaching the final fence, jumped into a clear lead and drew away on the run-in to win, readily, by six lengths. Inothewayurthinkin had been supplemented for the Cheltenham Gold Cup, at the cost of £25,000, on the Saturday before the race, but collected £364,313.57 in prize money for connections.

Galopins Des Champs was hampered and carried right when 28/1 outsider Ahoy Senor fell at the fifteenth fence, but recovered sufficiently to lead at the second-last fence, only to be swamped for pace by the winner in the closing stages. The front pair pulled a dozen lengths clear of the third horse home, Gentlemansgame, who finished just ahead of Monty’s Star, who was lucky to finish at all, having nearly parted company with jockey Rachael Blackmore at the fence at the top of the hill on the first circuit.

At his press conference following the victory of Galopin Des Champs in the 2023 Cheltenham Gold Cup, winning trainer Willie Mullins suggested that there might be “a little bit of improvement” left in his then-seven-year-old. So it proved in the 2023/24 season, with Galopin Des Champs winning the Savills Chase and the Irish Gold Cup, both at Leopardstown, with a mininum of fuss, en route to another crack at the Cheltenham Gold Cup on March 15, 2024.

At Cheltenham, he was sent off 10/11 favourite against 10 rivals, the pick of which, according to the bookmakers, were Gerri Colombe, whom Galopin Des Champs had beaten 23 lengths in the Savills Chase, at 13/2, whom he had beaten 4½ lengths in the Irish Gold Cup. The defending champion looked a ‘good thing’ on paper and so it proved in the race itself. Always prominent, Galopin Des Champs led two fences from home, took a three-length advantage at the last and maintained it all the way to the finish line. Gerri Colombe could make no impression on the run-in and finished second, nine-and-a-half lengths ahead of 2023 Grand National winner Corach Rambler.

Fastorslow unseated rider at the sixteenth fence, before the race began in earnest, and only six of the 11 runners completed the course. L’Homme Presse weakened approaching the final fence to finish fourth, Bravemansgame, second in 2023, finished fifth and Jungle Boogie sixth, after failing to recover from a bad mistake at the third-last fence.