Trainer

Dorset dairy farmer turned trainer Colin Tizzard first took out a full training licence in 1998, but in the two decades since has gone from strength to strength and, in 2018, enjoyed his best season yet, numerically, with 1979 winners.

Tizzard saddled his first Cheltenham Festival winner, Cue Card, in the Weatherbys Champion Bumper in 2010. A 40/1 outsider on that occasion, Cue Card became a flag bearer for the yard in subsequent seasons. He finished fourth, when favourite, behind Al Ferof in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle in 2011, clear second behind impressive winner Sprinter Sacre in the Arkle Challenge Trophy in 2012 and made all to beat First Lieutenant by 9 lengths in the Ryanair Chase in 2013. He twice fell in the Cheltenham Gold Cup when well fancied, including in 2016, when chasing a £1 million Triple Crown bonus, having already won the Betfair Chase at Haydock and the King George VI Chase at Kempton.

However, on the previous day, Tizzard had already saddled Thistlecrack to a facile, 7-length win over Alpha Des Obeaux and ten other rivals in the Stayers’ Hurdle. Afterwards,Tizzard spoke of not having to be part of a “big battalion” to find a superstar and, two years later, he appeared to have found another when Native River, ridden by Richard Johnson, fought off a determined challenge by eventual runner-up, Might Bite, to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Heading into the final day of the 2018 Cheltenham Festival, Tizzard had drawn a blank at the meeting and seen the ever popular Cue Card pulled up in what turned out to be his final race in the Ryanair Chase the previous day. However, Kilbricken Storm caused a 33-1 upset when winning the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle and, 40 minutes later, Native River provided a fairytale ending to the week and, in so doing, became his seventh Cheltenham Festival winner.

Tom George started training in 1993 and, in two-and-a-half decades since, has saddled over 700 winners and transformed his traditional, family home at Down Farm in Slad, near Stroud, Gloucestershire into an up-to-the-minute training establishment. By his own admission, George prefers a patient approach, with an emphasis on quality rather than quantity. His philosophy appears to be paying dividends because, in 2016/17, he enjoyed his most successful season ever, financially, surpassing £1 million in prize money for the first time and, in 2017/18, fell only just short of that mark.

Indeed, of the ten Grade One winners that George has saddled during his 25-year career, three of them came in 2017/18. Of course, two of those wins were provided by the same horse, Summerville Boy, who beat Kalashnikov in the Tolworth Hurdle at Sandown, before confirming the form in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle to give George only his second winner at the Cheltenham Festival.

George deliberately avoided a clash between Summerville Boy and his other highly promising novice hurdler, Black Op, who also runs in the colours of high-profile owner Roger Brookhouse. Consequently, Black Op ran in the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle, rather than the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, and finished a highly creditable second, beaten just 2¾ lengths, behind odds-on favourite Samcro.

Black Op was, in fact, attempting to follow in the footsteps of the only previous Cheltenham Festival winner for the yard, Galileo, who won the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle – at the time, run as the Royal & SunAlliance Novices’ Hurdle – in 2002. Galileo, a Polish-bred gelding – not to be confused with the 2001 Derby winner of the same name – failed to progress after promising start to his racing career but, with two Grade One-winning novice hurdlers in his yard, along with plenty more ammunition, it’s probably safe to say that George will be enjoying further success at the Festival before long.

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.

Susannah Ricci, the wife of American millionaire Rich Ricci, has had horses registered in her name since 2007 and, alongside Co. Carlow trainer Willie Mullins, has proved the scourge of bookmakers at the Cheltenham Festival ever since. Mrs. Ricci opened her account at the Festival in 2009, courtesy of Mikael D’Haguenet in the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle, but her pink and green colours have since been carried into the winners’ enclosure a further 18 times.

Her winning tally has included several multiple winners, such as Champagne Fever, who won the Weatherbys Champion Bumper in 2012 and the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle in 2013, Vautor, who won the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle in 2014, the JLT Novices’ Chase in 2015 and the Ryanair Chase in 2016, and Douvan, who won the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle in 2015 and the Arkle Challenge Trophy in 2016. Perhaps her most famous Festival winners, though, have been Faugheen, who won the Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle in 2014 and the Champion Hurdle in 2015 and

Annie Power, who fell at the final flight in the OLBG Mares’ Hurdle, with the race at her mercy, in 2015, but returned to win the Champion Hurdle in 2016.

More recently, Monkfish won the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle in 2020 and the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase in 2021. He suffered his first defeat over fences when beaten 8 lengths by stable companion Colreevy in the Champion Novice Chase at Punchestown on his final start of the 2020/21 season, but remains a top-priced 6/1 joint-favourite for the 2022 Cheltenham Gold Cup.