Weatherbys Champion Bumper – Ladies Day

The Champion Bumper is a Grade 1 contest and is the closing race on day two of the Cheltenham Festival.

This is a race that has one key difference from the rest. It is the only flat race to be run at the meeting.

Usually stuffed full of young horses, with little experience and huge potential, if you’re looking for Championship horses of the future, that may eventually run in races like the Cheltenham Gold Cup, then this isn’t a bad race to start.

Ran over two miles and a half a furlong, the race is run on the old course and is the final race to be run on that course, before racing moves to the new course a day later.

This is often a race to watch over and over again, as it’s not just the winner that will be worth following in the coming years.

First run back in 1992 under the name of the Festival Bumper, the Champion Bumper has enjoyed a number of different sponsorships over the years. Both the Tote and Guinness, companies with a decent link to the Festival, have sponsored it in the past. In 1997 Weatherbys became the race’s official sponsor and it’s been known as the Weatherbys Champion Bumper ever since.  At some point it should be given the registered name ‘Willie Mullins Champion Bumper’ on account of the fact he has won the race a staggering 14 times.

Race Facts

Because this is a flat race, also know as a ‘bumper’, it rather obviously doesn’t feature any jumps. It’s run over a distance of two miles and half a furlong and is left-handed. It’s open to horses aged between four and six, with four-year-olds weighing ten stone eleven pound. Five to six-year-olds can weigh eleven stone seven pound and fillies and mares get a seven pounds allowance.

The Grade 1 race is the last one to take place on the Old Course before the switch to the new course from St Patrick’s Thursday onwards.

Previous Winners

Race Trivia

The race in 2017 might have been the first time that Mr Jamie Codd had won the Bumper, but it wasn’t the first time that an amateur had won it. Back in 1998 a horse named Alexander Banquet came home with a promising young jockey named Ruby Walsh riding it. That win came two years after another amateur jockey called Willie Mullins won the race on the back of Wither or Which – he both trained and rode the horse.

What makes that bit of information even more interesting is the fact that Mullins switched from jockey to trainer and trained Alexander Banquet for Walsh. His win in 1996, on a horse he’d trained for himself, started a love affair with the Bumper – he’s won it a record fourteen times as trainer. Three of those wins came with horses ridden by Ruby Walsh, bringing the information full circle.  Four of those wins also came with his son Patrick Mullins, also an amateur jockey, demonstrating the ongoing success that amateurs have in this race.

Walsh along with Patrick Mullins are the most successful jockeys in the race because of those three and four wins each, but they are not the only people to win it more than once. Charlie Swan, Paul Carberry and Richard Dunwoody have all won it twice.  Jamie Codd also made it two victories winning with Gordon Elliot in both 2017 and 2019. Other than Mullins, Edward O’Grady and Gordon Elliot are the only trainers to manage more than one victory.

Amateur jockeys do well in this race generally, with 13 races won by an amateur since it started.  In more recent times amateurs have totally dominated winning in nine out of the past twelve races, from 2022-2026 all the winners had been ridden by amateurs.

The Only Flat Race at the Cheltenham Festival

The term “bumper” refers to flat races for National Hunt horses. These races are regular occurrences when it comes to jumps racing fixtures, but races at the top end for these horses are few and far between.

For this reason, the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham has an enormous amount of prestige linked to it; it’s a race that everyone wants to win with their up-and-coming youngsters.

Open to horses aged between four and six years old. To qualify for bumpers, you cannot have run over obstacles under the rules. This means the horses taking part are going to go onto hurdle races and potentially chase races in years to come, but for now, they don’t need any jumping ability.

Willie Mullins Dominance

Willie Mullins has been dominant at the Cheltenham Festival, and his figures stack up well regardless of the race you look at. But when it comes to this contest, his figures stand out even more.

The race was first run in 1992 and has been dominated by Mullins ever since. His first success came in the 1996 running, when Wither or Witch would land the race.  He won that as a jockey and trainer. He’d also win it in 1997 and 1998 having switched to being a trainer only, truly announcing himself as one to watch when it came to bumpers.

In total, the maestro from Closutton has won this contest 14 times over the years, a record that stands head and shoulders above any other trainer in the sport.

If you thought that time would catch up with him, think again. He’s arguably even more dominant in the race now. The last seven running’s, since 2020, he’s won five of them, including in 2024 with Jasmin De Vaux and 2025 with Bambino Fever.

Flat Jockeys Can Ride in the Champion Bumper

There is one slight quirk to this race that could make things very interesting. Being a race with no hurdles, jockeys who have a flat license are eligible to ride in the race.

Usually, it’s very rare to see flat jockeys in bumpers, but with this being the Cheltenham Festival, it does happen from time to time in this contest.

Since the beginning, just one flat jockey has been able to win the race, and that was back in 2002. Pizarro was the winner of the race that year, trained by Irishman Edward O’Grady, and the man he booked to ride his contender was flat jockey Jamie Spencer.

At the peak of his career at the time, Spencer was a big name to be riding in this contest, but he proved the faith in him was perfectly placed, as he ran out the winner.