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Which races were added to the Cheltenham Festival programme in 2005?

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The origins of what is now known as the Cheltenham Festival can be traced back to the inaugural running of the Grand National Hunt Steeplechase at Market Harborough on April18, 1860. Market Harborough Racecourse staged its final meeting on March 26, 1863 but, under the auspices of the National Hunt Committee, which was established by the Jockey Club in 1865, the National Hunt Chase continued to be staged, at various venues, until 1911. Cheltenham Racecourse was established, in its modern guise, by landowner William Baring Bingham in 1898 and hosted the first two-day ‘National Hunt Meeting’ in mid-April 1902. Back-to-back renewals of the National Hunt Chase were staged at Prestbury Park in 1904 and 1905 and, in 1907, the erstwhile ‘National Hunt Meeting’ was renamed the ‘National Hunt Festival’, at the behest of the Jockey Club.

That same year, the Steeplechase Company (Cheltenham) Limited was incorporated, under the chairmanship of Frederick Cathcart, who would remain at the helm until his death in 1934, and oversee the introduction of several major races during his tenure. In 1911, Baring Bingham offered the National Hunt Chase a permanent home at Cheltenham and running of that race effectively marked the nascence of the modern Cheltenham Festival. Under the advocacy of Cathcart, the Festival continued to flourish and, as the result of its popularity, was extended from two days to three in 1923. The Champion Hurdle was inaugurated in 1924 and the Cheltenham Gold Cup three years later, in 1927.

Notwithstanding the introduction of the ‘New’ Course, which was first used in 1967, the Cheltenham Festival remained a three-day event until 2005. Approval for a four-day Festival was received from the National Hunt Committee and Race Planning Committee of the British Horseracing Board (BHB) in February 2003. The initial format was four days of six races apiece, making 24 races in all, with a feature race – namely the Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase, World Hurdle (now Stayers’ Hurdle) and Cheltenham Gold Cup – on each day.

When the plans came to fruition, in 2005, the five new additions to the Festival programme were the Spa Novices’ Hurdle, Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle, Cross Country Chase, Festival Trophy and, now-defunct, Centenary Novices’ Handicap Chase. The last named contest, run over an extended two and a half miles, had various sponsors, most recently Northern Trust, but was removed from the programme in 2021, in favour of the Liberthine Mares’ Chase (nowadays known, for sponsorship purposes, as the Mrs. Paddy Power Mares’ Chase), which is run over the same distance. The Centenary Novices’ Handicap Chase was transferred to Sandown Park, where it is staged on Imperial Cup Day, immediately before the Cheltenham Festival.

Arguably the most notable addition was the Festival Trophy, nowadays better known as the Ryanair Chase, having been sponsored by the low-cost Irish carrier since 2006. Also run over an extended two and a half miles, on the New Course at Prestbury Park, the Ryanair Chase was promoted to Grade 1 status in 2008, and rivals the Stayers’ Hurdle as the ‘feature’ race of the day on St. Patrick’s Thursday.

The Spa Novices’ Hurdle, which was also promoted to Grade 1 status in 2008, is run over three miles, also on the New Course. The Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle, by contrast, is a Premier Handicap, run over an extended two miles on the Old Course. And, most idiosyncratic of all, the Cross Country Chase, nowdays sponsored by Glenfarclas, is a weight-for-sex conditions race, run over an extended three and three-quarter miles and 32 unique fences and obstacles, including banks, ditches and railed hedges.

Who is the only trainer to have saddled the winner of the Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase and Cheltenham Gold Cup in the same season?

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Along with the Stayers’ Hurdle, the Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase and Cheltenham Gold Cup comprise the four main ‘championship’ races staged annually at the Cheltenham Festival in March. The Cheltenham Gold Cup was first run, as a steeplechase, in 1924, the Champion Hurdle was first run in 1927 and the Queen Mother Champion Chase was first run, as the National Hunt Two-Mile Champion Chase, in 1959. However, in the six or so decades the races have co-existed, just one trainer has saddled the winner of all three in the same season.

The trainer in question is, of course, Henry de Bromhead, who is based in Knockeen, Co. Waterford and, in 2021, enjoyed an extraordinary four-week period in March and April. At the Cheltenham Festival, he saddled six winners, including not only an historic treble for Honeysuckle, Put The Kettle On and Minella Indo in the aforementioned championship races, but also Bob Olinger in the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle, Telmesomethinggirl in the Dawn Run Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle and Quilixios in the Triumph Hurdle. Three weeks later, de Bromhead saddled Minella Times and Balko Des Flos to finish first and second in the Grand National at Aintree.

Prior to 2021, the last trainer to win the Champion Hurdle and the Cheltenham Gold Cup in the same season was Kim Bailey, who did so with Alderbrook, ridden by Richard Dunwoody, and Master Oats, ridden by Norman Williamson, in 1995. Bailey did not have a runner in the Queen Mother Champion Chase that year although, just over three weeks after his Gold Cup victory, Master Oats was sent off 5/1 favourite to become the first horse since the legendary Golden Miller to complete the Cheltenham Gold Cup – Grand National double. He didn’t, of course, weakening on the flat to finish seventh of 35 finishers, 15¾ lengths behind the winner, Royal Athlete.

Did Tingle Creek ever win the Queen Mother Champion Chase?

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To a younger audience, the name Tingle Creek is probably best known from the title of what is now a Grade 1 steeplechase, run annually over 1 mile, 7 furlongs and 119 yards at Sandown Park in early December. The eponymous Tingle Creek was, in fact, a flamboyant, front-running two-mile steeplechaser who won 23 of his 52 races in Britain during the seventies.

Trained by Harry Thomson ‘Tom’ Jones and ridden, at various stages of his career, by
David Mould, Ian Watkinson and Steve Smith-Eccles, Tingle Creek excelled on rattlingly fast ground and particularly so at Sandown Park, where he became a standing dish. He won the Benson and Hedges Gold Cup – which would later be renamed in his honour – under 12st 5lb in 1973 and the Sandown Handicap Pattern Chase three times, in 1973, 1977 and 1978. breaking the course record on each occasion. Smith-Eccles said of him, ‘ I never rode a more exciting jumper.’

Tingle Creek was retired from racing in November 1978 and was described by Timeform as ‘on occasions the best two-mile chaser around when conditions were in his favour’. For all his exploits elsewhere, though, the popular chestnut never won at Cheltenham. Four of his six attempts at Prestbury Park came in the National Hunt Two-Mile Champion Chase – which would not be renamed in honour of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother until 1980, after his retirement – and his best effort was in 1974, when second to Royal Relief.

That said, Tingle Creek regularly locked horns with the leading lights in the two-mile chasing division and often beat them on unfavourable terms. In the autumn of 1977, for example, he gave 4lb and a 20-length beating to Menehall, who subsequently finished second to Hilly Way in the 1978 Champion Chase, in a handicap at Fontwell Park.

Which horse won more races, Desert Orchid or Kauto Star?

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Although by no means contemporaries, Desert Orchid and Kauto Star were both, of course, legendary steeplechasers of the modern era. In fact, it was not until 13 years, almost to the day, after

Desert Orchid suffered a disappointing end to his illustrious career, when falling in the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park on Boxing Day, 1991, that Kauto Star made a winning debut for Paul Nicholls in a novices’ chase at Newbury on December 29, 2004.

Thankfully, though, Timeform ratings – which were first published for National Hunt racing in the early sixties – are designed specifically to allow direct comparison between horses from different generations. According to Timeform, Kauto Star was rated 191 and Desert Orchid 187, making them the joint-fifth and sixth highest-rated steeplechasers of the Timeform era. In other words, Kauto Star was rated 4lb superior to his predecessor, which is the equivalent of approximately 4 lengths, based on the typical pounds-per-length scale used for Jumps handicapping over the range of distances at which they raced.

However, in terms of prolificacy, it was the flying grey who held sway. All told, Desert Orchid won 34, or 49%, of his 70 races over hurdles and fences and amassed £654,066. As testament to his versatility, his career highlights including victories in the Tingle Creek Chase, the King George VI Chase (four times), the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Irish Grand National over distances ranging from 2 miles to 3 miles and 5 furlongs.

By contrast, Kauto Star had a much shorter career, contesting just 41 races over hurdles and fences, but nonetheless won 23, or 56%, of them and amassed an eye-watering £3,775,883 in total prize money. Paul Nicholls’ charge was no less versatile than Desert Orchid, winning the Tingle Creek Chase (twice), the King George VI Chase (a record five times), the Betfair Chase (a record four times) and the Cheltenham Gold Cup (twice).