TAKECONTROL
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2026 Cheltenham Festival
The 2026 Cheltenham Festival took place between Tuesday, March 10 and Friday, March 13 and took its customary form, with 28 races staged over the four days. All five feature races of the week went the way of Irish-trained horses, Willie Mullins winning the Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase and Cheltenham Gold Cup with…
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Royal Ascot’s most unlikely winners
Royal Ascot has a tendency to expose horses. Five days, the sharpest fields in flat racing, and a track that punishes anything less than a proper performance. Most long shots are long shots for a reason, which is why those putting together their ante-post selections for Royal Ascot tend to gravitate toward the familiar…
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Cheltenham Festival 2025
Since the inception of the Prestbury Cup – that is, the official competition between British- and Irish-trained horses at the Cheltenam Festival – in 2014, the closest the home team have come to winning was a 14-14 draw in 2019. Unsurprisingly, Ireland was long odds-on to win again in 2025 and did so in style,…
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Cheltenham Festival 2024
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…
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Cheltenham Festival 2023
The 2023 Cheltenham Festival represented what had become business as usual for Irish-trained runners, with the visitors winning the Prestbury Cup 18-10, exactly the same scoreline as in 2022. Willie Mullins, with six winners, including Energumene in the Queen Mother Champion Chase and Galopin Des Champs in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, was leading trainer for…
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Cheltenham Festival 2022
With all remaining legal Covid restrictions lifted in England on February 24, 2022, spectators returned to the Cheltenham Festival with a bang, leading to a record aggregate attendance of 280,627 across the four days and a daily record attendance of 73,875 on Gold Cup Day alone. Pioneering female jockey Rachael Blackmore made headlines, as she…
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Cheltenham Festival 2021
With a nationwide lockdown still in place, due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the 2021 Cheltenham Festival took place behind closed doors, with no owners or spectators in attendance. Covid-19 restrictions also meant that amateur jockeys were not permitted to compete, such that the three traditional amateur riders’ races, the National Hunt Chase, the Fulke…
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Cheltenham Festival 2020
The 2020 Cheltenham Festival was staged, as usual, between Tuesday, March 10 and Friday, March 13 and, according to a Jockey Club spokesperson, “…went ahead under the clear and ongoing guidance from the government and its science experts throughout…”. Nevertheless, with extensive nationwide lockdown measures announced shortly afterwards, intended to curb the spread of Covid-19,…
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Countdown to the 2026 Cheltenham Festival
If you’re a follower of the sport of kings (that’s surely a given since you’re here), then there’s few racing festivals that you’ll be looking forward to that match the excitement of the Cheltenham Festival. Bundled up with so much history, rivalry and determination, it’s both cemented and created a number of horses, jockeys and…
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Great History of the Martin Pipe Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival who Martin Pipe became British National Hunt Champion Trainer 15 times.