County Handicap Hurdle – Gold Cup Day

The County Hurdle was established in 1920, making it one of the Cheltenham Festival races with a rich history.

This was historically the race to bring the curtain down on the meeting, run as the final race on the Gold Cup day, but that all changed in 2009. Despite the move, now placing this race earlier on the final day, it’s still regarded as a huge betting heat.

No longer the getting out stakes, now simply a race where there’s plenty of gambles, and quite a few runners that have been racing with this contest in mind for months, getting themselves ready for the big day.

A premier handicap, the race is run over two miles and one furlong in distance. The second race on the day, behind the Triumph Hurdle, both of these used exactly the same course and distance.

It’s open to horses aged five years old and up, and the tight nature of this handicap means that you need to be rated high to get in, as not everyone will get a run. With a maximum field going to post, horses beyond that are balloted out based on their rating.

This means you need to be well handicapped to have a chance of winning, yet be rated high enough to get in, which is exactly why this race is so tough to win.

For the majority of the race’s existence it was the last one of the entire Festival, but that changed in 2009 when it was moved to its current slot earlier on the final day.

From 1995 to 2016 it was named in honour of Vincent O’Brien, a horserace trainer from Ireland who died in 1994 after twenty-three wins at the Festival. 2017 was the year that Randox Health took over sponsorship of the race and in 2021 McCoy civil engineering company attached its name attached to the race.  In 2024 BetMGM took over as the sponsor and then in 2025 William Hill, to continue the run of betting sponsors.

Race Facts

Day Three is when the switch from the Old Course takes place, so the County Handicap Hurdle follows the form of other races on Days Three and Four in being run left-handed on the New Course. It lasts for two miles and one furlong, with eight hurdles to be jumped.

The Premier Handicap race is for horses aged five and over and is a handicap race, so there are no specific weight restrictions.

Previous Winners

Race Trivia

Remarkably, despite records going back as far as 1946, no horse has ever won the race more than once. As you’ll have gathered from Paul Townend winning the race for the fifth time in 2025, the same isn’t the case for jockeys.

As well as Townend with five, it has been won twice by F. Rees, Jonjo O’Neill, Richard Dunwoody, Timmy Murphy, Tony Dobbin, Tony McCoy and most recently Harry Skelton. George Duller won it three times in the 1920s, but it’s Ruby Walsh who holds second place with his four wins in the 2000s.

As we mentioned before, Willie Mullins has a particular affiliation with the County Handicap Hurdle. He trained the winning horse for the first time in 2010 thanks to Katie Walsh and Thousand Stars, then he won it again the following year. He notched up win number three in 2015 and his fourth in 2017.  He made it 5 wins in 2020 with French horse Saint Roi and 6 in 2022 with favourite State Man, ridden by Paul Townend.  In 2024 Townend rode Absurde to victory to make it seven and tin 2025 he rode favourite Kargese home to make it eight wins to date.

Paul Nicholls is second on the trainer list with 4 wins, gaining his first win in 2004, his second in 2006, his third in 2009 and his most recent in 2014. Dan Skelton is the trainer of the moment racking up three wins in 2016, 2018 and 2019.

Bridget Andrews and Dan Skelton won in 2018 (Mohaayed) and 2023 (Faivoir) and both of those horses went off at 33/1.  If you are looking for a potential outsider then they are surely worth a look.  Bridgett is also the only female jockey to win this race more than once.

Let’s also give Jonjo O’Neill a mention in this.  He won this race twice as a jockey, first time in 1982 and then in 1986, before winning it as a trainer in 2000 and then 2026. The 2026 winner Wilful was ridden by his son Jonjo O’Neill Jr. and he co-trained the winner with his son AJ, literally passing over the reigns.  An astonishing relationship with winning this race that spans 40 years.

There have been eleven different occasions on which there was no race. The first time this happened was in 1931, when a severe frost meant horses couldn’t run on the course. In 1937 the problem was flooding, whilst the race was cancelled between 1943 and 1945 owing to the Second World War. Frost and snow returned in 1947, 1949 and 1955 stopping racing from taking place once more, with the same thing stopping matters in 1978. In the meantime, the 1975 running was cancelled because of more water logging. The most recent cancellation came about in 2001 when the foot-and-mouth crisis meant the whole festival was abandoned.

No Dual Winners in Over 100 Years

The County Hurdle has been taking place for more than 100 years now, and so far, we are yet to see a dual winner of the race.

This shows the competitive nature of this handicap contest, something that has been part of its history for many decades now.

But it’s also partly down to the number of runners who come to try and win it once, but then never return, especially winners.

Those who land this race often go up quite a bit in the handicap, and that puts them on the cusp of graded racing, so coming back down to a race like this is not on their agenda.

Willie Mullins’ Biggest Handicap Push

While you’ll often see the name Willie Mullins associated with the biggest Grade One and Championship races at this meeting, such as the Cheltenham Gold Cup that comes later on this card, the County Hurdle is a race that he’s really started to target.

In recent years, between 2020 and 2025, he’s won four out of the six renewals that have taken place.

Each time, he’s done so with a horse that had plenty of quality, was well handicapped, and has since gone on to bigger and better things.

Saint Roi (2020) and State Man (2022) have both won at Grade One level since winning this handicap. Absurde (2024) has won a Listed flat race since, having a mixed campaign, while Kargese (2025) has since finished second in a Grade One contest.

While it shows that Mullins targets this race with a good horse, this also shows the kind of class and future potential you need to win this contest, despite it being a handicap.

When you compare this race to others at the Cheltenham Festival, the type of horse he’s sent, and the success he’s had, you can say this is the handicap that Willie Mullins targets the most with his impressive string of horses.