club meeting - GOING FOR GOLD

Speaker: John Wells, The Cheltenham Gold Cup.

John began by saying he had known the speaker all of his life!! Apparently another favourite subject, other than horses, is Westerns, with Jimmy Stewart featuring largely; Libby stole his thunder with her talk last week! The following takes us on a 50 year journey.

Firstly, a bit of history. Horse racing, particularly the Cheltenham Gold Cup, has figured greatly in John’s life. As part of the Cheltenham Festival, the Gold Cup first took place in July 1819. It began as a flat race on Cleeve Hill before moving to Prestbury Park (its current home) - the old course overlooked the current. The first winner was Spectre and the prize 100 guineas.

The race as we know it today was founded in 1924 and is considered the Blue Riband of the steeple chase world. The Cheltenham Gold Cup is run in March each year and sometimes it co-incides with

St Patricks Day….. Last year 265,000 pints of Guiness were sold at £7.85 a pint. The race is run over

a distance of 3 miles, 2 furlongs and 70 yards and is the most valuable, non-handicap race in Britain.

The prize this year totalled over £800,000 -  in 1924 the winner, Red Splash, was awarded £1000. The race has been abandoned twice in its history during the 1930’s, once for frost and once for flood. It has, also, only been cancelled twice - 1943 and 1944 due to WW2. The entire festival was cancelled in 2001 due to an outbreak of foot and mouth disease. In 2020 the festival and the Gold Cup, in particular, was blamed for accelerating the spread of COVID 19 and was the last major sporting event to take place before lock down; the 2021 race was held behind ‘closed doors’. The course is a bit like an amphitheatre and the atmosphere, according to John, is like no other. The race starts about 3 furlongs from the main stand and each time the horses come around, the sound from race goers gets louder and louder - John says ‘the 3^rd time round all hell lets loose especially with the Irish contingent’.

The most successful jockeys are currently Pat Taaffe, who rode the famous Arkle in 1964, 5 and 6 and also Fort Leney in 1968; Paul Townend, a four time winner, rode Al Boum Photo in 2019 and 2020 and Galopin des Champs in 2023 and 2024 - John expects he will win more. The leading trainer with five wins is Tom Dreaper who trained Prince Regent, Arkle and Fort Leney. The leading owner, Dorothy Paget, owned Golden Miller, Roman Hackle and Mont Tremblant.

The fastest winner was Long Run in 2011 and the record winning margin was by Arkle, 30 lengths, in 1966. Multiple winners of the Cheltenham Gold Cup are:

            Golden Miller (5 times)

            Cottage Rake (3 times)

            Arkle (3 times)

            L’Escargot (2 times)

            Best Mate (3 times)

            Kauto Star (2 times) - the only horse to regain the title (2007/2009) after finishing second to   his stable mate, Denman, in 2008.

Al Boum Photo (two times)

Galopin des Champs (two times)

Moving on to John’s own Cheltenham Gold Cup experiences.

John first attended the race, bunking off school, with his Dad, in 1970 when L’Escargot was the winner. John remembers being mesmerised and, on reflection, how different things were then. There were two wooden stands, an attendance of around 3000 and you could pay on the gate! Now there are 4 stands and a Guinness shopping village (bars, shops and car sales). The Gold Cup is now a sell out and attracts over 70,000 spectators on the day. John went on to talk about the memorable moments of his 50 year attendance at the race, including many of Cheltenhams history making moments.

Ø  Best Mates three wins in a row.

Ø  Kauto Star regaining his crown.

Ø  Dawn Run becoming the only mare and horse to win both the Champion Hurdle and the Gold Cup.

Ø  Michael Dickinson training the first five horses home in the 1983 race.

Ø  Garrison Savannah was the first horse to be trained by a female trainer (Jenny Pitman)

Ø  A Plus Tard the first horse to be ridden by a female jockey - Rachel Blackmore - and very close to the record length winner.