The 2024 Cheltenham Festival was notable for the centenary of the 'Blue Riband' event, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, which first won, as a steeplechase, by Red Splash, trained by Fred Withington, in 1924. To the surprise of no-one, though, the 2024 renewal went to the defending champion, Galopin Des Champs, trained by Willie Mullins and ridden by Paul Townend. The eight-year-old provided the pair with their fourth Cheltenham Gold Cup in six years, enabling Townend to equal the record set by the late Pat Taaffe – best known as the jockey of the legendary Arkle – on Fort Leney in 1968.
Aside from the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Mullins and Townend also won the Champion Hurdle with State Man. In the absence of defending champion Constitution Hill, sidelined with a severe respiratory infection, the 2023 runner-up was sent off at odds of 2/5 to land the two-mile hurdling championship and did so with a minimum of fuss, keeping on well on the run-in to beat his chief market rival, Irish Point, by a length and a quarter.
Elsewhere, the Queen Mother Chase and the Stayers' Hurdle went to horses trained in Ireland, but Warwickshire trainer Dan Skelton struck a blow for the home team when winning the Ryanair Chase with Protektorat, ridden by his brother, Harry. In fact, Skelton also saddled Langer Dan to win the Coral Cup, Unexpected Party to win the Grand Annual Chase and Grey Dawning to win the Turners' Novices' Chase. The leading trainer title, though, went to Willie Mullins, with nine winners, and the leading jockey title to Paul Townend, with six. Mullins also reached the milestone of 100 Cheltenham winners when Jasmin De Vaux, ridden by his son, Patrick, won the Champion Bumper.
Keen-eyed students may have noticed that, while the Cheltenham Festival typically features 28 races, the final score in the 2025 Prestbury Cup was 18-9 in favour of Irish-trained horses. All the winners came for Britain and Ireland, but the Cross Country Chase, scheduled as the fourth race on day two, a.k.a. 'Style Wednesday', was cancelled, due to waterlogging, after over four inches of rain fell on the course the previous day.
No comments:
Post a Comment