Updates
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Cheltenham Festival 2007: Tastes Like Chocolate
Robert ‘Chocolate’ Thornton proved the jockey to follow at the Festival in 2007. His four winners – My Way De Solzen in the Irish Independent Arkle Chase, Voy Por Ustedes in the Queen Mother Champion Chase, Katchit in the JCB Triumph Hurdle and Andreas in the Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Chase – were sufficient to…
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Cheltenham Festival 2006: Nicholls and Walsh Dominate
Ruby Walsh topped and tailed the week with a winner, making up fully 7 lengths on the run-in to win the opening Anglo Irish Bank Supreme Novices’ Hurdle on Noland, but having to work much less hard on Desert Quest, who drew clear for an impressive 2½-length win in the closing Vincent O’Brien County Hurdle.…
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Cheltenham Festival 2005: Three Become Four
The National Hunt Festival at Cheltenham had been a three-day spectacle since 1923 but, in 2005, was extended from three to four days. Four new races – namely, the Fred Winter Juvenile Novices’ Handicap Hurdle, the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase, the Festival Trophy, or Ryanair Chase and the Spa Novices’ Hurdle, or Albert Bartlett Novices’…
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Cheltenham Festival 2004: Time for Rupert
With all due respect to Paul Webber’s charge, Time For Rupert, who ran in the Ladbrokes World Hurdle, the RSA Chase and the Cheltenham Gold Cup in his time, the titular Rupert, in this case, is Rupert ‘Ruby’ Walsh. In his second full season as stable jockey to Paul Nicholls – who was to become…
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Cheltenham Festival 2003: Nap Hand for Geraghty
The Smurfit Champion Hurdle featured a showdown between Rooster Booster, winner of the Vincent O’Brien County Hurdle the previous year and Rhinestone Cowboy, narrowly touched off by Pizarro in the Weatherbys Champion Bumper in 2002, but unbeaten in four subsequent starts over hurdles. However, the showdown never really materialised because Rooster Booster quickened clear in…
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Cheltenham 2017 Recap
The Cheltenham Festival is dubbed “the greatest show on turf” and it duly delivered on its nickname in 2017 by serving up thrills aplenty for horse racing fans, punters, celebrities and royals alike. A memorable four days of high-quality racing culminated in success for Jessica Harrington and Robbie Power as Rock the World claimed the Grand…
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Cheltenham Festival 2002 – The Festival Returns
The outbreak of foot and mouth disease and subsequent ban on the movement of livestock, including the suspension of racing, put paid to the 2001 Cheltenham Festival in its entirety. However, it was business as usual in 2002, with Flagship Uberalles supplementing his win in Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown the previous December in the…
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Cheltenham Festival 2001
The 2001 Cheltenham Festival was at first postponed and then cancelled in 2001, after a well-publicised outbreak of foot and mouth disease affected the area. The first time there hadn’t been a Gold Cup chase at Cheltenham for decades. There have been no such problems since, but there has been a number of amazing races…
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Cheltenham Festival 2000
There was a strong element of déjà vu about the Cheltenham Festival in 2000, with Istabraq and Stormyfairweather returning to Prestbury Park to repeat their victories in the Champion Hurdle and Cathcart Challenge Cup, respectively. Monsignor, who’d won the Weatherbys Champion Bumper in 1999, took his record over hurdles to six from six when pushed…
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Cheltenham Festival 1999: Nicholls Breaks Through
The Cheltenham Festival in 1999 proved memorable for Paul Nicholls, who collected the Queen Mother Champion Chase with Call Equiname, the Arkle Challenge Trophy with Flagship Uberalles and the Cheltenham Gold Cup with See More Business. The latter was all out to beat 66/1 outsider Go Ballistic by a length, but ultimately did just enough…