Cheltenham Races

Royal Ascot of course has its fans, but in terms of the big races and festivals I find that the two that really stir interest in both serious and casual punters are the Cheltenham Festival and the Grand National. They both clearly capture the attention of the betting public, and bookmakers are the first to look […]

The 2002 Cheltenham Gold Cup, sponsored by the Tote, featured 18 runners – the biggest field since Silver Buck beat 21 rivals in 1982 – and was the first to be run for two years, after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth required the abandonment of the Cheltenham Festival in 2001. The defending champion, Looks Like Trouble, […]

As much as I’d like to write about the Cheltenham Gold Cup 2001, that could prove difficult as it didn’t happen, due to falling within the foot and mouth disease exclusion zone. The boundary of an infected area reached a mile from the course and so the Festival was called off. It’s the first time since World […]

The 2000 Cheltenham Gold Cup, sponsored by the Tote, featured 12 runners and, on unseasonably fast ground, was won in a time of 6 minutes 30.3 seconds, marginally faster than the previous record set by shock 100/1 winner Norton’s Coin in 1990. Defending champion See More Business started 9/4 favourite to become the first horse […]

For once, the Festival started poorly for Willie Mullins and Ruby Walsh, who were both winless after the first two days. However, four winners on Thursday, all trained by Mullins, were enough to give Ruby Walsh his fifth jockeys’ title in a row. Willie Mullins saddled two more winners on Friday, for a total of […]

The Champion Bumper, currently sponsored by Weatherbys (which administers racing under contract from the British Horseracing Authority), is run over 2 miles and 110 yards on the Old Course at Cheltenham. Like other races of its kind, the Champion Bumper is restricted to National Hunt horses aged between four and six years and is run under […]