Cheltenham Festival

Registered as the Festival Trophy, the race that is nowadays better known as the Ryanair Chase was inaugurated in 2005, when the Cheltenham Festival was extended from three days to four. It was run once under the auspices of the Daily Telegraph, unsurprisingly as the Daily Telegraph Festival Trophy Chase, but has been sponsored by the Irish low-cost airline group ever since.

Run over the intermediate distance of two miles and four and a half furlongs on the New Course at Cheltenham, the Ryanair Chase was promoted to Grade 1 status in 2008 and is now described by the ‘Racing Post’ as the ‘feature’ race on the third day of the Cheltenham Festival. Indeed, the Ryanair Chase is worth £375,000 in guaranteed prize money, whereas the Stayers’ Hurdle, which it precedes by 40 minutes, is worth £50,000 less.

The omnipresent Willie Mullins is the leading trainer in the history of the Ryanair Chase, having saddled Vautour (2016), Un de Sceaux (2017), Min (2020) and Allaho (2021, 2022). Indeed, the last-named is one of just two horses to have won the race twice, the other being Albertas Run, trained by Jonjo O’Neill, who recorded back-to-back victories under Tony McCoy in 2010 and 2011.

From a punting perspective, the good news is that just two of the last 10 winners, Uxizandre in 2015 and Protektorat in 2024, came from outside the first three in the betting and four of them were sent off outright favourite. It is also worth noting that nine of the last 10 winners achieved at least one first- or second-placed finish in their last two starts.

The Festival Plate, or the TrustATrader Plate Handicap Chase, to give the race its full, sponsored title, began life, as the Mildmay of Flete Handicap Chase, in 1951. The race originally commemorated Anthony Bingham Mildmay, Second Baron Mildmay of Flete, who was a leading amateur jockey prior to his untimely death, aged 41, on May 12, 1950.

Nowadays, TrustATrader Plate Handicap Chase is classified as a ‘Premier Handicap’ by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) and is scheduled as the penultimate race on the penultimate day of the Cheltenham Festival, a.k.a. St. Patrick’s Day. The race is run over two miles and four and a half furlongs, and 17 fences, on the New Course at Cheltenham and is open to horses aged five years and upwards. That said, Majadou (1999) remains the only five-year-old ever to have won.

Coincidentally, Martin Pipe, who trained Majadou, remains, jointly, the most successful trainer in the history of the race, alongside Bobby Renton and Nicky Henderson, with four winners. Even more remarkably, Fred Winter, who retired from the saddle in 1964, remains the most successful jockey, with three winners, including a memorable dead-heat on Slender, trained by Ryan Price, in 1951.

Three favourites have won in the past decade but, while there were two more winners at single-figure prices in that period, they were accompanied by winners at 33/1, 22/1, 20/1, 16/1 and 14/1. Great Britain and Ireland are tied 5:5 in the last 10 runnings, but it is worth noting that Carrickboy, who popped up at 50/1 in 2013, was the last winner to be officially rated less than 140.

The race registered as the Golden Miller Novices’ Chase was added to the Cheltenham Festival in 2011 and was run most recently, in its original guise, as the Grade 1 Turners’ Novices’ Chase in 2024. However, from 2025 onwards, that race has been discontinued and replaced by the new Jack Richards Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase. The latter is still scheduled as the second race on St. Patrick’s Thursday, still run on the New Course, but over approximately a furlong further than its predecessor, at two miles and four and a half furlongs, and still open to horses aged five years and upwards. To qualify, horses must have started in a minimum of three chases in Great Britain, Ireland or France.

Aside from a slight increase in distance, the Jack Richards Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase has been downgraded to a Grade 2 event and, as the name suggests, is now a limited handicap with weights ranging between 11st 12lb and 10st 6lb. Willie Mullins, with four winners – Sir Des Champs (2012), Vautour (2015), Black Hercules (2016) and Yorkhill (2017) – was the most successful trainer in the race in its previous incarnation, but what effect the signficant changes to the conditions have on future trends remains to be seen. Essentially, those changes were introduced to create a more competitive alternative to the other Grade 1 novice chases during the week, namely the Arkle Novices’ Chase, over two miles, and the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase, over three.

On Day Three of the Cheltenham Festival, dubbed ‘St. Patrick’s Thursday’ by the Jockey Club, the racing action switches from the Old Course at Prestbury Park to the largely parallel, but more demanding, New Course. The first race on the card is the Dawn Run Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle, a.k.a. the Ryanair Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle, a Grade 2 contest run over two miles and a furlong and, as the name suggests, open to fillies and mares, aged four years and upwards, who are still at the ‘novice’ stage of their careers.

The race is a fairly recent addition to the Festival program, having been established in 2016. It has been sponsored throughout its existence, but commemorates the racemare Dawn Run, who remains the only horse ever to have won the Champion Hurdle and the Cheltenham Gold Cup. The first five renewals all went the way of Country Carlow trainer Willie Mullins, courtesy of Limini (2016), Let’s Dance (2017), Laurina (2018), Eglantine du Seuil (2019) and Concertista (2020), but the last three have been won by horses trained in Britain.

Interestingly, Laurina was the last of three winning favourites from nine runnings so far, all nine winners were aged five or six years, all nine had run at least twice during the current season and eight of them had won at least once. None of the nine winners had previously won at Cheltenham, but eight of them had won at least once at, or around, two miles and a furlong.

Currently scheduled as the fourth race on ‘Style Wednesday’ at the Cheltenham Festival – where it serves as an appetiser for the feature race of the day, the Queen Mother Champion Chase – the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase is run over three and three-quarter miles, and 32 idiosyncratic obstacles, on the Cross Country Course. The race was established in 2005, but has been sponsored by Glenfarclas since 2009 and become synonymous with the Speyside whisky distillery.

Originally a handicap, the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase became a conditions race in 2016 and, that year, produced a controversial result, with the original winner Any Currency, trained by Martin Keighley retrospectively disqualified after traces of a prohibited substance were detected in a urine sample. The race remained a conditions race until 2023 – the 2024 renewal was abandoned due to waterlogging – before reverting to a handicap in 2025.

The most successful horse in the history of the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase was the dual Grand National winner, Tiger Roll, trained by Gordon Elliott, who was victorious in 2018, 2019 and 2021. Indeed, he came within three-quarters of a length of a fourth win when just touched off by stable companion Delta Work on the final start of his career in 2022. The last British-trained winner of the race was subsequent Grand National runner-up Balthazar King, saddled by Philips Hobbs, in 2014. The fact that the race reverts to a handicap effectively renders recent trends moot, but it may be worth noting that neither Willie Mullins nor Paul Nicholls have ever saddled the winner from multiple runners.