Every year hundreds of thousands of race goers descend on Cheltenham all hoping to watch some of the best horse racing action this country has to offer.
And providing that action are hundreds of horses and dozens of jockeys and trainers.
In 2025, it will be held over the days between the 11th and 14th March, and as usual, it will draw the absolute best hurdlers and chaser all vying for that legendary ‘Cheltenham Win’.
Over the years the winner’s enclosure has been home to some of the biggest names in the sport. From triple Gold Cup winner Best Mate to last year’s winner Galopin Des Champs, it takes a special horse to win at Cheltenham.
But horses are nothing without their trainers so we’re going to take a look at the most successful trainer at the Festival and those who are nipping at his heals.
Willie Mullins
The undisputed King of Cheltenham is the the legendary Irish trainer Willie Mullins.
2024 was his year as he became the first to reach the 100 winners milestone at the Festival.
This remarkable feat was accomplished on the second day of the festival, when Jasmin De Vaux claimed victory in the Champion Bumper, the final race of the day.
Mullins entered the 2024 Cheltenham Festival with 94 winners under his belt. He quickly added to this tally on the first day, known as Cheltenham Tuesday, with three wins in the Arkle, Champion Hurdle and Mares Hurdle.
On Wednesday, he continued his winning streak with Ballyburn winning the Novices’ Hurdle. Fact To File secured his 99th victory in the Novices’ Chase.
And then that incredible achievement of his 100th win was achieved by Jasmin De Vaux in the Champion Bumper.
He then went on to win three more, nine in total for the Festival.
His journey to 103 Cheltenham Festival winners spans nearly three decades. His first victory at the festival came in 1995 with Tourist Attraction in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.
Since then, Mullins has dominated the Cheltenham Festival, particularly in recent years.
He has claimed the Leading Trainer accolade 11 times since 2011, won the last six consecutive Leading Trainer titles and in the past six years alone, has saddled an impressive 42 winners, averaging seven victories per festival.
Nicky Henderson
Next on the list of the all-time top Cheltenham Festival trainers is Nicky Henderson. In his 40-year career he has trained a total of 73 winning horses at this event and been named leading trainer nine times.
He got his first win back in the mid-1980s when See You Then claimed the Champion Hurdle, a race that has brought him particular success over the years.
He has added a further eight Champion Hurdle victories, the most recent of which came from Constitution Hill in 2023.
Henderson is a Cheltenham all-rounder though, as horses he has trained have produced wins in all four champion races.
His Gold Cup winners were Bob’s Worth and Long Run, while Altior is probably his most famous Queen Mother Champion Chase winner.
2024 wasn’t great for Henderson whose string of horses came down with an illness that ruled most of them out of contention.
But he will bounce back and will undoubtedly return to the winner’s enclosure once again in 2025.
Paul Nicholls
Although a long way behind the top two, Nicholls has still managed to train an impressive 49 winning horses in Cheltenham races.
He is a trainer whose reputation didn’t really start to take off until early this century, when horses he trained secured a stunning series of victories at the festival.
Master Minded, Denman, Kauto Star, Big Buck’s and others like them brought multiple Gold Cups, Champion Chases and Stayers’ Hurdles for Nicholls and his Ditcheat stables.
Kauto Star was perhaps the most spectacular runner of all. Winner of the Gold Cup in 2007, before being pipped by Denman the following year, this horse went on to win it back in 2009.
That makes him the only horse to manage that in the history of the festival. It has been nearly 16 years since Nicholls enjoyed Gold Cup glory, but Bravemansgame could change that in 2025.
Nicholls is the dominant trainer among the new generation and he will want to take the chance to emphasise that again at this year’s Cheltenham Festival.
And The Rest
Of those still actively training today, Gordon Elliott is currently on 40 winners with Henry De Bromhead on 23.
With recent winning surges in both yards, they may never each the dizzy heights of Willie Mullins but they can definitely give Paul Nicholls and (maybe) Nicky Henderson a run for their money.
It is a competition as fierce as any on the race track and another good year for either of them could change the game.
Why People Want to Win at Cheltenham
The reason why so many of the very best trainers around want to put horses into the championship races at Cheltenham is because of the prestige attached to them.
A win in one of these high profile races, particularly the Gold Cup on the last day of the event, can really put a horse and a trainer on the map.
That makes it almost as important to many as the Grand National and it matches that for sheer competitiveness.
That is true of both the racing and the betting, with punters seeking out the hottest horses to back and the best sites to bet with.
Winning a Cheltenham bet can be as lucrative as winning a championship race there, with the prize money for race victories being another big incentive to the owners and trainers.
So will Willie Mullins end up as the all-time most successful trainer at Cheltenham? I wouldn’t bet against him!
