FEATURE GOLD CUP 100
Golden Miller; below, Red Splash
Best Mate ridden by jockey Jim Culloty
“Racing is one of the few sports where women and men compete on equal terms”
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to stable companion Denman in 2008 before winning again in 2009 – the first horse to regain the Gold Cup crown. Nicholls is one winner away from equalling Tom Dreaper’s record of five Cheltenham Gold Cup winners. Racing is one of the few sports where women and men compete on equal terms and the Gold Cup has long been on the forefront of equality between the sexes. Jenny Pitman became the first successful female trainer with Burrough Hill Lad in 1984 and repeated the feat seven years later with Garrison Savannah. Henrietta Knight’s three wins with Best Mate were followed by Jessica Harrington, who became the first female Irish trainer to succeed with Sizing John in 2017. Last year Rachael Blackmore became the first winning female jockey. Having come agonisingly close when runner-up to stable companion Minella Indo on A Plus Tard in 2021, Blackmore and A Plus Tard reversed the placings with Minella Indo in no uncertain terms to come home the spectacular 15-length winner. Commercial sponsorship of the Cheltenham Gold Cup was provided by Piper Champagne in 1972. The Tote took over sponsorship in 1980 followed by Betfred (2012- 2015), Timico (2016-2018) and Magners (2019-2020). The 2021 contest took place behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was run in aid of WellChild while Boodles assumed sponsorship in 2022. It has been a marvellous Gold Cup century and who knows what the next 100 years will hold. One thing is for certain – if Frederick Cathcart were able to see how his vision grew to become the race the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup is today, he’d be very proud.
magnificent horse robbed of racing in his prime in Britain due to World War II. Dreaper’s second Gold Cup winner was for many the greatest of them all – Arkle, the winner in 1964, 1965 and 1966. Fort Leney was Dreaper’s record fifth and final winner in 1968. The 1980s was a vintage decade for the Gold Cup. Having saddled Silver Buck to success in 1982, a year later his Michael Dickinson recorded the remarkable feat of saddling the first five horses home, led by Bregawn. Cheltenham has never seen scenes like those in the aftermath of the Irish mare Dawn Run landing the 1986 contest, when she made history by becoming the first (and to date, only) horse to win the Champion Hurdle and the Cheltenham Gold Cup. It was said the popular Desert Orchid couldn’t win on a right-handed course and didn’t like soft ground, but that was no bar to success in the 1989 Cheltenham Gold Cup, when he rallied with courage to overhaul Yahoo in the final strides. He was expected to win again in 1990 but had to settle for third behind Norton’s Coin, who at 100-1 was the longest-priced winner in the race’s history and the only to be trained in Wales. With no multiple winner since L’Escargot in the early 1970s, many were beginning to wonder if there would ever be another, but then along came Best Mate, who was expertly trained by Henrietta Knight to record a hat-trick of victories in 2002, 2003 and 2004. Paul Nicholls first enjoyed Gold Cup success in 1999 with See More Business. A second came in 2007 with Kauto Star. Also a record five-time winner of Kempton Park’s King George VI Chase, Kauto Star had to give way
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