Cheltenham Races

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 […]

The Triumph Hurdle, currently sponsored by JCB, has been a fixture of the Cheltenham Festival since 1968. The Grade 1 contest, run over 2 miles and 179 yards on the New Course at Cheltenham, is exclusively contested by juvenile novice hurdlers and is the leading event of its kind in the British National Hunt calendar. […]

The St James’s Place Festival Hunters’ Chase is run over 3 miles 2½ furlongs on the New Course at Cheltenham and is open to horses aged five years and upwards. The race is run over the same course and distance as the Cheltenham Gold Cup and is currently scheduled as the sixth race on the […]

It’s often written that, as the highlight of the entire National Hunt season, the Cheltenham Gold Cup requires little or no introduction. However, if you’re new to National Hunt racing, or racing in general, you might like to know what all the fuss is about. In terms of nuts and bolts, the Cheltenham Gold Cup […]

The Novices’ Handicap Chase, most recently run, for sponsorship purposes, as the Close Brothers Novices’ Handicap Chase, is a Class 1 Listed contest open to horses aged 5 years and upwards, officially rated between 0 and 140, according to the British Horseracing Authority (BHA). The race is run over 2 miles 4 furlongs and 78 […]

Registered as the Spa Hurdle, the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle is a fairly recent addition to the Cheltenham Festival programme, having been run for the first time in 2005. Originally framed as a Grade 2 contest and sponsored by Brit Insurance, the race was upgraded to Grade 1 status in 2008, at which point sponsorship […]

The National Hunt Chase, or National Hunt Chase Challenge Cup, to give the race its full title, is run over 4 miles on the Old Course at Cheltenham, where it is currently scheduled as the penultimate race on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival in March each year. The National Hunt Chase is open […]

The County Handicap Hurdle is a Grade 3 contest, run over 2 miles 1 furlong on the New Course at Cheltenham, where it is currently scheduled as the second race on the final day of the Cheltenham Festival in March. Historically, the County Hurdle was the last race at the Festival and, granted its highly competitive […]