2027 Gold Cup

The Cheltenham Gold Cup is the main race at the Cheltenham Festival that takes place every year in March. The first ever Gold Cup was run in July 1819. It was run on a flat course and was three miles long. It wasn't until March 1924 when jumps were introduced into the race on what had then become the ‘Old Course'.

Golden Miller, who won every race from 1932-36, dominated the race. Eight years later, the Gold Cup was cancelled twice during World War II. After the war, there was a new champion, Cottage Rake. The horse won the Gold Cup for three consecutive years from 1948-50, which led to the increasing popularity of the race.

In 1959 the Gold Cup was moved to the ‘New Course' - the same course that is used to this day. With plenty of winners since then, one of the most popular and famous of them all is Arkle. He won the race three times between 1964-66 and even had The Arkle Challenge Trophy named after him at the Festival.

The race has been run every year since it moved to the ‘New Course', except for 2001 when there was an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

Best Mate matched the feat set by Arkle by winning the race on three consecutive occasions between 2002-04. Since then, only Al Boum Photo (2019 & 2020) and Galopin Des Champs (2023 & 2024) have managed to win it in back-to-back years.

PRIZE MONEY

Due to the race having been first run 200 years ago, the prize for today's winning trainer has improved dramatically. In 1819 Spectre was the winner of the race. His owner, Mr Bodenham, received a prize of 100 guineas.

When the Gold Cup became a jumps race in 1924 the prize for the owner of Red Splash was £685. Fast-forward 96 years later to 2020 and the total purse for the Cheltenham Gold Cup was £625,000. £351,688 of that went to the connections of Al Boum Photo, the winner of the race.

This was a back-to-back Gold Cup win for the Willie Mullins trained chaser who also won the race in 2019.

By the time the Gold Cup rolled around in 2021, racing was being held behind closed doors. This meant no racing fans and no income from selling the tickets. As such the prize fund was reduced to £468,750.

Connections of the Gold Cup winner, Minella Indo, took home £263,766.

For the 2022 Gold Cup, the prize fund was restored to its full amount. The winner was A Plus Tard for jockey Rachael Blackmore and trainer Henry de Bromhead. The team took home £351,687.50 for the win.

In 2023 and 2024, when Willie Mullins won the race again with Galopin Des Champs, his team scooped £351,688 of the £625,000 prize pot.

FAMOUS WINNERS

The most notable winner when the Gold Cup was run on the Old Course was Golden Miller. The horse won its first Gold Cup at the age of five and won it for five consecutive years.

He went off at odds of 13/2 in his first win and at the age of eight went off at its shortest winning odds at 1/2. Golden Miller was paired with four different jockeys over the five years. Gerry Wilson was the only jockey to ride him twice in 1934 and 1935.

Arkle is perhaps the most well-known horse to win the Gold Cup consecutively. In 1964 he went off at odds of 7/4 when he first won the race but wasn't the favourite. When he won his final Gold Cup he was priced at 1/10F. No horse has ever gone off at shorter odds in Gold Cup history than Arkle in 1966.

The most recent winner of at least three consecutive races was Best Mate in 2002. Ridden by Jim Culloty each time, Best Mate was priced at 7/1 in 2002 and then 8/11F in 2003.

Kauto Star was another famous winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Trained by Paul Nicholls, he first won the race in 2007 and then again in 2009. This made him the only horse to regain the Gold Cup in the history of the race. He was beaten in 2008 by stablemate Denman, who he then beat the following year.

Trainer Willie Mullins may have waited quite a long time to bag his first Gold Cup, but when he did in 2019 he did it in style with Al Boum Photo. So much so that he came back to win it again in 2020.

He returned for the treble in 2021 and went off as the race favourite. However it was Minella Indo's day and connections for Al Boum Photo had to settle for third place.

Rachael Blackmore made history when she became the first female jockey to win the Gold Cup in 2022 on board A Plus Tard.

Willie Mullins and Paul Townend were back in the winners enclosure again in 2023 and 2024 with Galopin Des Champs.

GOLD CUP RECORDS

Golden Miller is the most successful horse in Gold Cup history. He is the only horse to win the race five times, with the closest competition coming from Cottage Rake, Arkle and Best Mate. All with three Gold Cups each.

Paul Towned has the most wins as a jockey. Between 2019 and 2026, he rode five winners, including twice on Al Boum Photo (2019, 2020), twice on Galopin Des Champs (2023, 2024), and again in 2026 on Gaelic Warrior.

Pat Taaffe is next up with four wins as a jockey. He rode Arkle in all three of his wins and then went on to win with Fort Leney in 1968, two years after Arkle's final win. Jim Culloty, Tommy Carberry Dick Rees, and Aubrey Brabazon are in third place all with three each.

Tom Dreaper and Willie Mullins tie as the leading trainers with five winners each. Dreaper's first win came with 4/7f Prince Regent in 1946. He had to wait another 18 years to get his next winner. That was Arkle who added three more to his tally. His fifth and final win was Fort Leney in 1968.

Willie Mullins' five winners are all since 2019 where he won with Al Boum Photo (2019, 2020), Galopin Des Champs (2023, 2024), Gaelic Warrior (2026).

No trainer has more Cheltenham Festival winners than Irish trainer Willie Mullins. He has won 121 festivals since 1995. However, it took him until 2019 to win his first Gold Cup. That came in the form of Al Boum Photo, ridden by Paul Townend at odds of 12/1.

The leading owner is Dorothy Paget. She owned Golden Miller for all five of his Gold Cup wins and then added two more to take her total to seven wins. She owned the 1940 winner Roman Hackle and Most Tremblant, who won the race in 1952.

Norton's Coin is the highest-priced winner of the Gold Cup. He won the race at a staggering 100/1 in 1990. His owner took the horse to Cheltenham on the day of the race, but only after he had finished milking his cows.

The favourite for the race was Desert Orchid at 10/11. Norton's Coin ran the race in 6 mins 30.9 seconds, which was the fastest time since 1953. He won the race by 3/4 of a length.

The fastest ever time for a Gold Cup win was in 1941. The record was set by Poet Prince, who completed the race in 6 minutes and 15.6 seconds. Roger Burford rode the 7/2 favourite. The time was set on the Old Course.

The fastest time around the New Course was set by Long Run in 2011. Long Run was the 7/2F and completed the race in 6 minutes and 29.7 seconds. This was Nicky Henderson's first of two Gold Cup winners to date, the other being Bobs Worth in 2013.