{"id":35229,"date":"2025-11-06T21:38:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T21:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mansionbet.com\/blog\/?p=35229"},"modified":"2025-11-06T21:38:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T21:38:17","slug":"ten-fascinating-facts-about-the-cheltenham-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mansionbet.com\/blog\/sports\/horse-racing\/cheltenham-festival\/ten-fascinating-facts-about-the-cheltenham-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten Fascinating Facts About the Cheltenham Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Photo by Rawpixel, CC by 1.0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They call the Cheltenham Festival the \u2018Olympics of jumps racing\u2019 for a reason. Nothing else in the calendar matches its buzz or spectacle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each March, all eyes turn to Cheltenham as the finest jumps horses from Britain, Ireland and France gather to compete for the sport’s biggest honours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cheltenham Festival will be back from 10\u201313 March 2026. With excitement already building, here are 10 fascinating facts to get you in the spirit<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Prizes and Their Winners<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

1. Prize money at the Cheltenham Festival tallied more than \u00a31m per-day for the first time in 2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    <\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The overall purse across four days reached over \u00a34.5m, and the amount got even bigger in subsequent years. After record-breaking prizes last year, organisers raised the bar even higher for this year\u2019s Festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The 2025 Cheltenham Festival broke records with prize money hitting \u00a34.93 million – a \u00a3115,000 boost on the year before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Once again, the biggest payday came in the Gold Cup, with the winner pocketing the lion\u2019s share of the \u00a3625,000 prize fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here\u2019s the Cheltenham Festival 2025 prize money per race:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    • Supreme Novices’ Hurdle – \u00a3150,000<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Arkle Novices’ Chase – \u00a3200,000<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Ultima Handicap Chase – \u00a3150,000<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Mares’ Hurdle – \u00a3120,000<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Champion Hurdle – \u00a3450,000<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Juvenile Handicap Hurdle – \u00a380,000<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • National Hunt Chase – \u00a3200,000<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Turners Novices\u2019 Hurdle – \u00a3200,000<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Brown Advisory Novices\u2019 Chase – \u00a3200,000<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Coral Cup Hurdle – \u00a3100,000<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Cross Country Steeple Chase – \u00a375,000<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Queen Mother Steeple Chase – \u00a3400,000<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Grand Annual Steeple Chase Challenge Cup – \u00a3150,000<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Champion Bumper – \u00a380,000<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Mares\u2019 Novices\u2019 Hurdle – \u00a3105,000<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Jack Richards Novices\u2019 Limited Handicap Chase – \u00a3125,000<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Pertemps Network Final – \u00a3100,000<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Ryanair Steeple Chase – \u00a3375,000<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Stayers\u2019 Hurdle – \u00a3325,000<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • TrustATrader Plate Handicap Chase – \u00a3150,000<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup – \u00a375,000<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Triumph Hurdle – \u00a3150,000<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • County Handicap Hurdle – \u00a398,370<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Mrs Paddy Power Mares\u2019 Steeple Chase – \u00a3120,000<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Albert Bartlett Novices\u2019 Hurdle – \u00a3150,000<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Cheltenham Gold Cup – \u00a3625,000<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Festival Hunters Chase – \u00a350,000<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys Handicap Hurdle – \u00a375,000<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      2. Ruby Walsh is the all-time most successful rider at the Cheltenham Festival having retired in 2019 with 63 winners on his CV<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
        <\/ol>\n\n\n\n

        The Irishman was crowned leading rider at the meeting a whopping 11 times, starring for both Paul Nicholls and Willie Mullins in his storybook career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Gold Cup wins on Kauto Star (2007 & 2009) and Champion Hurdles on Hurricane Fly (2011 & 2013) rate highly, but Walsh admits Annie Power\u2019s redemptive success in the 2016 Champion Hurdle was one of his most satisfying Cotswolds successes ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        3. Willie Mullins has trained more Cheltenham Festival winners than anyone else<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
          <\/ol>\n\n\n\n

          The Irish supremo took his tally to a majestic 78 winners in 2021, with Allaho\u2019s Ryanair Chase and Appreciate It scoring in the Supreme Novices\u2019 Hurdle his highlights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          For many years the Gold Cup eluded Mullins, but Al Boum Photo changed that in 2019 and retained the crown in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          The Queen Mother Champion Chase is the only piece of the Cheltenham Championship jigsaw missing from Mullins\u2019 collection now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          4. There are two courses at Cheltenham \u2013 The Old Course and The New Course<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
            <\/ol>\n\n\n\n

            The former is used for the first two days of The Festival before switching to the New Course \u2013 generally considered to be a more daunting stamina test, though neither are easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            12,320 yards of running rails surrounding the tracks while 5,000 bundles of birch are used every season on the Cheltenham fences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Records and Their Setters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

            5. The first female jockey to win a Grade 1 race during The Festival was Katie Walsh in 2018<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
            \n