Category: Cheltenham Festival

Over a century before the Cheltenham Gold Cup was founded, as a steeplechase, in March, 1924, a race of the same name was run, over 3 miles on the Flat, on Cleeve Hill, which overlooks what is now Cheltenham Racecourse. The inaugural running of that race, staged in July, 1819, was won by a horse called Spectre, a 3-year-old owned by a certain Mr. Bodenham.

However, the details of the inaugural running of the race that would become the most-coveted title in National Hunt racing are better known because they were reported in the newspapers of the day and recorded for posterity by British Pathé News. On March 12, 1924, nine runners went to post on the Old Course at Prestbury Park and, according to contemporary newspaper reports, produced ‘a really magnificent race’. Victory went to Red Splash, trained in Bicester by Fred Withington and ridden by Frederick Brychan ‘Dick’ Rees, one of the finest jockeys in the inter-war period. As a 5-year-old, Red Splash received 9lb from each of his rivals and made the most of the weight concession, edging out Conjuror II and Gerald L by a neck and a head in a driving finish.

Run over 2 miles 4½ furlongs on the New Course at Prestbury Park, the Ryanair Chase was established, under its registered title, the Festival Trophy, when the Cheltenham Festival was extended to four days from three in 2005. At that stage, the race was still a Grade Two contest – it was not upgraded to Grade One status until 2008 – and the inaugural running was sponsored by the Daily Telegraph, not Ryanair, and hence advertised as the Daily Telegraph Festival Trophy Chase.

In any event, the race served as a replacement for a similar, but not identical, event, known as the Cathcart Challenge Cup, which was run in various guises between 1938 and 2004, but was latterly restricted to horses in their first or second season over fences. The inaugural running of the race was won by Thisthatandtother, trained by Paul Nicholls and ridden by Ruby Walsh, but, strictly speaking, because Ryanair did not take over sponsorship the following year, the inaugural running of the Ryanair Chase was the 2006 winner Fondmort, trained by Nicky Henderson and ridden by Mick Fitzgerald.

The ‘championship’ or ‘feature’ races run at the Cheltenham Festival are, of course, the Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase, Stayers’ Hurdle and Cheltenham Gold Cup. The Cheltenham Gold Cup, inaugurated in 1924, and the Champion Hurdle, inaugurated in 1927, were both introduced on the direction of Clerk of the Course Frederick Cathcart, who probably did more than anyone else to raise the profile of the Cheltenham Festival.

The original incarnation of the Stayers’ Hurdle, known as the ‘Stayers’ Selling Hurdle’, was first run at the Cheltenham Festival in 1912, but the race took on a more recognisable form as the ‘Spa Hurdle’ – not to be confused with the Spa Novices’ Hurdle, a.k.a. the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle – in 1946. In 1972, the Spa Hurdle was renamed the Stayers’ Hurdle and, apart from an 11-year period when it was renamed the ‘World Hurdle’, has been known by that title ever since.

The two-mile steeplechasing championship, the Queen Mother Champion Chase, was inaugurated in 1959, when it was known simply as the ‘National Hunt Two-Mile Champion Chase’. However, in 1980, the race was renamed to celebrate the eightieth birthday of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, who was a lifelong supporter of National Hunt racing, particularly steeplechasing.

The brainchild of Frederick Cathcart who was, at the time, Clerk of the Course at Prestbury Park, the Cheltenham Gold Cup was first run, as a steeplechase, in 1924. Remarkably, British Pathé News cameras were on hand to record the victory of Red Splash, with the footage later shown in cinemas as part of the weekly newsreel. That was, of course, before the advent of television and televised National Hunt racing did not become a regular feature until much later in the twentieth century.

In fact, it was not until after World War II, in 1948, that Sandown Park became the first British racecourse to host televised National Hunt racing. However, televised racing proved highly popular with armchair viewers and ad men soon recognised the potential of National Hunt racing as an advertising medium. In 1957, the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup, now the Ladbrokes Trophy, became the first sponsored race but, even before then, the 1955 Cheltenham Gold Cup had already been broadcast on BBC television, complete with commentary from the inimitable Sir Peter O’Sullevan. The winner was 33/1 outsider Gay Donald, who came home ten lengths ahead of his nearest pursuer, Halloween, with jockey Tony Grantham looking around for dangers throughout the last half mile.