Category: Horses

Of course, the Cheltenham Gold Cup is a ‘conditions’ race, run at level weights, with weight-for-age and weight-for-sex allowances. As such, it would be reasonable to assume that winning outsiders are something of a rarity. In fact, for the first three decades of its existence, as a steeplechase, the longest-priced winner was the locally-trained Four Ten, at 100/6, in 1954. However, the very next year, Gay Donald, trained by Jim Ford and ridden by Tony Grantham, sprang the first real surprise when winning, easily, at 33/1.

The Cheltenham Gold Cup was transferred to the New Course at Prestbury Park in 1959, but it was not until 1970 that L’Escargot, trained by Dan Moore and ridden by Tommy Carberry, also popped up at 33/1. To his credit, L’Escargot proved that effort was no fluke by returning to Cheltenham to defend his title in 1971, at rather less ‘shocking’ odds of 7/2.

It was nearly two decades later that the next unlikely winner came along, but when he did, he caused the ‘Shock of the Century’, according to the ‘Racing Post’. The unlikeliest of unlikely winners was Norton’s Coin, a previously unheralded 9-year-old, trained by Carmarthenshire permit-holder ridden by Graham McCourt. Belying odds of 100/1, Norton’s Coin was always going well and led on the run-in to beat Toby Tobias and defending champion Desert Orchid, breaking the course record in the process. Indeed, the Nineties proved a profitable decade for outsiders, with Cool Ground and his near namesake Cool Dawn both winning at 25/1, in 1992 and 1998, respectively.

At the time of writing, in 92 runnings since its inauguration, the Cheltenham Gold Cup has thrown up nine odds-on winners – all of whom, with one exception, were also multiple winners – but, interestingly, only one since 1966. The first odds-on winner was Easter Hero, who was sent off at odds of 8/11 for the second of his two wins, in 1930. He was followed shortly afterwards by the celebrated Golden Miller, who started at 4/7 and 1/2 for the second and fourth victories of his unprecedented five-timer, in 1933 and 1935 respectively.

Next up was Prince Regent, at 4/7, in 1946, who has the distinction of being the only one of the odds-on winners to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup just once. Indeed, the last five odds-on winners – which were, in fact, just three different horses – were all in the process of completing hat-tricks. Cottage Rake was sent off 4/6 and 5/6 for the second and third legs of his hat-trick, in 1949 and 1950, Arkle started 30/100 and 1/10 for the second and third legs of his, in 1965 and 1966, and Best Mate was returned at 8/11 for the third and final leg of his, in 2004. Unsurprisingly, Arkle – arguably the greatest steeplechaser of all time – holds the record for the shortest-priced winner in Gold Cup history.

In the history of the Champion Hurdle, which dates back to 1927, the winning time has been under 3 minutes 50.00 seconds on just five occasions. Istabraq, who completed a hat-trick in the two-mile hurdling championship in 1998, 1999 and 2000, was responsible for two of those times and, indeed, set a new course record, of 3 minutes 48.10 seconds, when winning impressively in 2000.

That record stood until 2014, when it was smashed by Jezki – owned, like Istabraq, by J.P. McManus – who just edged out My Tent Or Yours in a driving finish, eventually coming home in a time of 3 minutes 45.25 seconds. While that time represented a significant improvement on the previous best, the course record was broken again just two years later by the mare Annie Power.

By that stage of her career, Annie Power had been beaten just once in 15 completed starts – and, even then, not by far in the Stayers’ Hurdle two years previously – and had famously fallen at the final flight, with the race at her mercy, in the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle the previous year. In receipt of a 7lb weight-for-sex allowance, she was sent off 5/2 favourite for the 2016 Champion Hurdle and duly obliged, making most of the running to beat the luckless My Tent Or Yours by 4½ lengths in a new course record time of 3 minutes 45.10 seconds.