Arkle Challenge Trophy Novices’ Chase – Champion Day

The second race on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival is the Arkle Chase, and it’s a race that definitely stakes its claim as being the one that has the potential for the most drama.

Two miles in distance means you need speed, over the big fences means you need jumping, and to add more into the contest, most horses competing are usually on their third or fourth start over the bigger obstacles. The test, combined with that inexperience, means that anything could happen here.

A Grade One contest, bringing the quality angle, and everything above, definitely adding to the drama, it’s a Cheltenham Festival race you don’t want to miss.

Between 1946 and 1969 there was a race run at Festival that was known as the Cotswold Chase. (This is not to be confused with a race of the same name, now run as a trial for the Gold Cup and ran at Cheltenham in January since 1980).

The original Cotswold Chase was replaced by the Arkle Challenge Trophy in 1969, a race dedicated to the memory of Arkle, who won the Gold Cup on three occasions during the 1960s. First sponsored by Waterford Castle in 1991, it is a good example of Ireland’s connection to Cheltenham, having since been sponsored by both Guinness and the Irish Independent. In more recent years the sponsorship has changed most years.

Arkle had a TimeForm rating of 212, which is the highest ever given to a steeplechaser. Little wonder, then, that this is seen as such a great race to win.

Race Facts

As with all other races on Day One, the Arkle Challenge Trophy is run left-handed on the Old Course at Cheltenham. It is open to novice chasers and is seen as the National Hunt’s leading minimum-distance chase for horses that are classed as novices. The Arkle Challenge Trophy is for five-year-olds and upwards, with mares given an allowance of seven pounds on the weight of eleven stone seven pound.

It is run over a distance of one mile, seven furlongs and 199 yards, so it’s not the longest race of the meeting by a long-shot. It features thirteen fences, though, so that adds a decent amount of work to the load of the jockeys.  Interesting the race has a high percentage of favourites that win.

Previous Winners

Race Trivia

The name and style of the race isn’t the only thing that’s changed over the years: originally it was run on Day Two of the Festival, moving to Day One back in 1980. That gives people plenty of time to consider their options ahead of the Queen Mother Champion Chase, with some winners of this race having gone on to win one of the week’s feature races in future years. The most recent to do just that was Put The Kettle On who won this in 2020 and the QM Champion Chase in 2021.

It was a feat also achieved by Altior. He won the Arkle Challenge Trophy in 2017 and then the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 2018 and 2019.

When it comes to success for trainers in this race then Nicky Henderson rules the roost, having won it eight times since his first victory in 1991. Before his 2017 win, however, he was tied for the honour with Tom Dreaper. Dreaper won it under its old style and then did so again when it became the Arkle, seeing his horse Alpheus win it in 1971.  Willie Mullins has trained the winner of this race seven times (2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2023, 2024 & 2026).

A number of very well-known jockeys have won this race three times during their careers. Tony McCoy won for the first time in 1997, did so again the following year and then got the hat-trick in 2004.  Paul Townend also now has three wins to his name riding Willie Mullins trained winners in 2019, 2023 & 2024.  Nico de Boinville has also ridden the winner three times now, all with Henderson trained horses.

Ruby Walsh has four victories, winning it firstly in 2003 before back-to-back wins in 2015 and 2016 and then again in 2018 (before breaking his leg for the second time in a season the next day).  Barry Geraghty also has four wins.

Arkle Favourites Continue to Have Success

If you’re a favourite in the Arkle Chase, then the history books show you’ve got an excellent chance of winning. It’s a race where favourites have done incredibly well.

In recent times, the 2025 win of Jango Baie broke a run of four consecutive winning favourites before that, from 2021 to 2024.

If you take a longer period of time, then the stats continue to back up this trend for favourites. Over the last 15 years, from in 2012 to 2026, 10 renewals have been won by the favourite.  Having said that in the past two years the favourite hasn’t won so maybe times are changing?

Elsewhere, there’s not much else in the way of stats to point towards winners. It’s a 7-8 split between the UK and Ireland for who has won those last 15 years, and both Nicky Henderson and Willie Mullins have enjoyed dominance. Mullins has won this race seven times in that period, Henderson has won it five, so their runners are worth noting, but neither has a clear upper hand.

Novice Event for Future Champion Chase Runners

On the day, Arkle winners are celebrated like the Grade One champions they are, but of course, there is a bigger picture and racing after the novice season over fences is all about the Champion Chase.

Horses that start off at two miles over fences will generally stay there, so Arkle winners are often spoken about as Champion Chase horses of the future.

Good news for those studying the form book, as the Champion Chase is run over the same distance as the Arkle, and on the same course, so form over the years can be compared. The only difference is that the Champion Chase is run a day later, on day 2 of the Cheltenham Festival.

The last horse to win the Arkle Chase and then win the Champion Chase was Put the Kettle On. The mare landed the 2020 Arkle and then won the 2021 Champion Chase.

As for where horses come from before they go to the Arkle, for those that need a fence and aren’t quick enough for hurdles, it usually means no run at the previous festival. However, we have seen a few horses go from the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, run just before the Arkle on day 1, and then go over fences to the Arkle a year later.