Cheltenham Gold Cup
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The Cheltenham Gold Cup is a Grade 1 National Hunt horse race in the United Kingdom for five-year-old and above horses run over a distance of 3 miles 2½ furlongs (5,331 metres) at Cheltenham Racecourse during the Cheltenham Festival in March. There are twenty-two fences to be jumped in the race.
It was first run in 1924, and is the most prestigious chase in the United Kingdom.
The most successful horse in Gold Cup history was Golden Miller, who won five times from 1932. Three other horses have won the race three times consecutively - Cottage Rake in 1948-1950, Arkle in 1964-1966 and Best Mate in 2002-2004.
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[edit] Trivia
- 1952 Mont Tremblant was owned by Dorothy Paget, who was winning the race for the seventh time (five with Golden Miller) - the most successful owner.
- 1966 Arkle's third victory came at odds of 1/10 - the shortest-priced winner of the race.
- 1968 Fort Leney provided Tom Dreaper with his fifth win in the race - the most successful trainer.
- 1973 Pendil was the odds-on favourite. He was called the winner coming to the final fence by Peter O'Sullevan. However, The Dikler rallied on the flat and just won. The next year he was again odds-on favourite and was unluckily brought down three from home. His was ridden by current racing pundit Richard Pitman.
- 1979 Tied Cottage fell at the last fence when just leading Alverton. The next year he passed the post first only to be disqualified much later due to a drugs infringement.
- 1983 The first five horses home were trained by Michael Dickinson. In order these were Bregawn, Captain John, Wayward Lad, Silver Buck and Ashley House.
- 1986 Dawn Run became the only horse to have won both the Champion Hurdle and the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
- 1990 Norton's Coin, the only Welsh-trained winner, is also the longest-priced winner of the race, with odds of 100/1.
- 1991 Five of the horses who took part won the race sometime during their career. These were previous winners Desert Orchid and Norton's Coin, future champions The Fellow and Cool Ground as well as the actual race winner Garrison Savannah.
- 1994 The Fellow is the only Gold Cup winner to be trained in France.
- 1995 Kim Bailey and Norman Williamson, with Alderbrook and Master Oats, are the latest of five trainer/jockey combinations to win the Champion Hurdle and the Gold Cup in the same year.
[edit] Winners
- Amateur jockeys indicated by "Mr".
* Tied Cottage finished first in 1980 but was subsequently disqualified after testing positive for a banned substance.
