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When The Festival reaches its conclusion on Friday 17 March, the countdown to the 2024 edition – and a special anniversary – begins Gold Cup 100 R acing fans and those with a sense of history have extra reason to look forward to 2024 when a very special anniversary is celebrated – the centenary of the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Gloucester Rugby Club, schools, Hartpury College, Leckhampton Court Hospice and even NATO’s Allied Rapid Reaction Force barracks.
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Cathcart’s vision of an elite level weights contest for the very best chasers quickly came into being thanks to two great horses – Easter Hero, successful in 1929 and 1930; and Golden Miller, the contest’s winning-most horse with five successes (1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936). Easter Hero narrowly failed to add victory in the Grand National to his CV, finishing runner-up under 12st 7lbs in the 1929 running of the Aintree contest, but Golden Miller won both races in 1934 and remains the only horse to achieve this magnificent double in the same season. L’Escargot won the Gold Cup in 1970 and 1971 followed by the Grand National in 1975, but nowadays it is rare for horses to contest both races. The early post-war years at The Festival were dominated by Vincent O’Brien and the great trainer saddled Cottage Rake to three consecutive victories (1948, 1949, 1950) as well as Knock Hard (1953) before turning his hand, equally successfully, to Flat racing. It is another Irishman who holds the record
Although a race known as the Cheltenham Gold Cup had existed as a three-mile Flat race in the 19th century, its present status is very much down to the foresight of Frederick Cathcart, Clerk of the Course and Chairman of Cheltenham Racecourse from 1908 to 1934. Jump racing in the early 20th century was dominated by the Grand National. As great a spectacle as that race is, it is a handicap and Cathcart was keen to establish a conditions contest for the best chasers to contest. The Cheltenham Gold Cup was born in 1924, followed by the Champion Hurdle in 1927 – the modern foundations of The Festival we know today were well and truly laid. Red Splash won the inaugural Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1924 and was presented with a magnificent trophy comprised of 644 grams of nine carat gold and plated in 18 carat gold to give it a rich colour. After lying in a bank vault for many years, Cheltenham
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was reunited with the original trophy at the end of 2018, and it is now the perpetual trophy for the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
for training the most Cheltenham Gold Cup winners – Tom Dreaper. Modest and unassuming, viewing himself more as farmer who trained a few horses on the side, Dreaper saddled
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It has been taken on tour around the region in the build-up to the race’s 100th anniversary, taking in locations as diverse as Cheltenham Town Football Club,
his first Gold Cup winner in 1946 with the veteran Prince Regent, a
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