If you like your racing a little different from the norm, then you are going to love the Cross Country Chase. It’s a marmite race at the festival. Some see it as a gimmick, but I love it, and plenty of others do too.
The great Tiger Roll has certainly helped enhance the race’s reputation in recent years. While this may be a newish race it already has a huge status by virtue of double Grand National winner, Tiger Roll, winning it a record three times. That includes in 2021 when he was all but written off. The Cheltenham legend also came second at the age of 12 in 2022, his last race before retiring.
Now a handicap since the 2025 race, that should bring more runners and competitive betting heat, but it’s still the same cross-country course, and a three-mile six-furlong trip to tackle.
This is one of a number of new races that were established back in 2005 when it was decided that a fourth day should be added to the Festival’s calendar. Two other cross country chases are also held on the Cheltenham Racecourse during the year, with one in November and the other in January. As a group the three races were sponsored by Sporting Index until 2007 when BGC took over the honour. Glenfarclas, the whiskey distillery, began sponsoring them ahead of the 2008-2009 season and has remained their sponsor since.
It’s on day two of the Cheltenham Festival, and it’s a race that will always get people talking. Note that the 2024 edition of this race was called off due to waterlogging in parts of the cross-country course, so if it is a wet year this race is sometimes at risk of having fences omitted or being abandoned all together.
Race Facts
Given that this is a cross-country chase it’s no real surprise that it’s pretty long. It’s run over three miles and five furlongs and has an impressive thirty-one obstacles that need to be jumped.
Technically ungraded, this race was a handicapped event prior to 2016, at which point it switched to a conditions race. Consequently horses are given weight according to factors such as their age, ability, previous success and sex. In 2025, however, the BHA decided this race should be a handicap again and so weights are now assigned by the handicapper based on the horses rating.
As the name suggests, this race is run on Cheltenham’s Cross Country Course.
Records For Most Wins
| Record Type | No of Wins | Record Holder |
|---|---|---|
| Horse | 3 | Tiger Roll |
| Trainer | 5 | Edna Bolger & Gordon Elliott |
| Jockey | 5 | Keith Donoghue |
Race Trends: Winners Since 2005
Previous Winners
| Year | Winner | Age | Odds | Prize | Jockey / Trainer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Final Orders | 10 | 7/1 | £39,022.50 |
J: Conor Stone-Walsh
T: G P Cromwell
|
| 2025 | Stumptown | 8 | 5/2 F | £39,022.50 |
J: K M Donoghue
T: G P Cromwell
|
| 2024 | Race Abandoned | 0 | -/- | £0 |
J: Race Abandoned
T: Race Abandoned
|
| 2023 | Delta Work | 10 | 11/10 F | £39,022.50 |
J: K M Donoghue
T: G Elliott
|
| 2022 | Delta Work | 9 | 5/2 F | £39,022.50 |
J: J W Kennedy
T: G Elliott
|
| 2021 | Tiger Roll | 11 | 9/2 | £30,176.50 |
J: K M Donoghue
T: Mrs D Foster
|
| 2020 | Easysland | 6 | 3/1 | £40,235 |
J: Jonathan Plouganou
T: D Cottin
|
| 2019 | Tiger Roll | 9 | 5/4 F | £40,235 |
J: K M Donoghue
T: G Elliott
|
| 2018 | Tiger Roll | 8 | 7/1 | £40,261 |
J: K M Donoghue
T: G Elliott
|
| 2017 | Cause of Causes | 9 | 4/1 | £40,235 |
J: Mr J J Codd
T: G Elliott
|
| 2016 | Any Currency | 13 | 11/1 | £37,140 |
J: Aidan Coleman
T: M Keighley
|
| 2015 | Rivage D'Or | 10 | 16/1 | £37,536 |
J: Davy Russell
T: A J Martin
|
| 2014 | Balthazar King | 10 | 4/1 | £31,280 |
J: Richard Johnson
T: Philip Hobbs
|
| 2013 | Big Shu | 8 | 14/1 | £31,280 |
J: B M Cash
T: Peter Maher
|
| 2012 | Balthazar King | 8 | 11/2 | £25,024 |
J: Richard Johnson
T: Philip Hobbs
|
| 2011 | Sizing Australia | 9 | 13/2 | £25,048 |
J: A E Lynch
T: H De Bromhead
|
| 2010 | A New Story | 12 | 25/1 | £28,179 |
J: A P Heskin
T: Michael Hourigan
|
| 2009 | Garde Champetre | 10 | 7/2 | £31,310 |
J: Ms N Carberry
T: E Bolger
|
| 2008 | Garde Champetre | 9 | 4/1 | £31,315 |
J: Ms N Carberry
T: E Bolger
|
| 2007 | Heads Onthe Ground | 10 | 5/2 F | £28,183.50 |
J: Ms N Carberry
T: E Bolger
|
| 2006 | Native Jack | 12 | 7/2 F | £25,052 |
J: Davy Russell
T: P J Rothwell
|
| 2005 | Spot Thedifference I | 12 | 4/1 | £23,200 |
J: Mr J T McNamara
T: E Bolger
|
Race Trivia
Cause of Causes win in 2017 saw it equal some Cheltenham Festival history. It became only the fourth horse to win three successive but different races at the Festival. The other horses that managed the same feat were Flying Bolt, Bobs Worth and Vautour. He won the J T McNamara National Hunt Chase in 2015, the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Handicap Chase in 2016 and then the 2017 Cross Country Chase to see out the unique hat-trick.
Given the tough nature of the Cross Country Chase, with so many jumps and such a distance to cover, it’s no major surprise that horses that do well in this race also compete in the Grand National. For example, Balthazar King, who won the race in 2012 and again in 2014, entered the famous race at Aintree in its second year of winning this event and finished second. Likewise, Spot Thedifference, who won in 2005, had finished fifth in the National the year before.
Balthazar King is one of four horses to have won the race more than once, the others being Tiger Roll, his stable mate Delta Work and Garde Champetre. The latter horse won back-to-back titles in 2008 and 2009, ridden by Miss Nina Carberry who is the race’s second most successful jockey with four wins. All four of her wins came on the back of horses trained by Enda Bolger. Bolger also won the inaugural race in 2005 as a trainer, meaning she’s won it five times and is the race’s most joint most successful trainer. Gordon Elliot is the other most successful trainer, also with five victories.
Gordon Elliott’s horse came in as the winner in three consecutive years from 2017 to 2019, two of which were with Tiger Roll (2018 and 2019). He should have also had Tiger Roll running under him in 2021 when the double Grand National winner claimed a record third win in the race, however, a ban prior to the Festival meant Tiger Roll ran under Denise Foster on his record setting third victory. All three of Tiger Roll’s wins were with Keith Donoghue as jockey.
Tiger Roll retired in 2022 but not before a valiant effort to finish second in the Cross Country. He was beaten by Delta Work who was a stable mate trained also by Gordon Elliott, allowing him to rack up his fourth win as trainer in spite of the fact it spoilt the dream of Tiger winning a fourth and last time. He only just lost too, by less than a length in the end.
Delta Work went on to become the fourth horse to win the race more than once when he won in 2023 with the shortest odds seen yet of just 11/10. This brought up Elliott’s fifth win in the race and the fourth for Keith Donoghue. Donoghue also won in 2025, this time on favourite Stumptown trained by Gavin Cromwell, making him the most successful jockey with five victories to date.
The Cross-Country Course
Situated in the middle of Cheltenham racecourse, the Cross Country Chase has its own course for a large part of the race and then feeds back onto the main course for the closing stages.
It’s a unique challenge, with tight turns, mounds and raised parts of the course to navigate, and that’s without mentioning the fences.
From ones that replicate the fences of the Grand National, to barrels, walls, hedges and more, there’s something for everyone. Some horses love it. Others struggle to get to grips with what they’re being asked to do.
For this reason, course form is incredibly important to look at. Not because you need to have a course winner on your side, but because you know if they’ll take to it or not. Horses can win on this course for the first time, but they involve a little more risk for the punter.
Given the lack of racing on this course and the unique nature of it, the jockey on board is also something to look at when you’re picking your selection. Some jockeys are made for this type of test. Keith Donoghue springs to mind instantly when I think of this race, a five-time winner of the event and a winner on this course at other meetings during the year. While others don’t get many attempts, so they are often hesitant to lead, and have to follow the rest.
We’ve seen on more than one occasion, jockeys either take the wrong course and run out of the race, or almost go out of the race, showing just how difficult it is to get around here, never mind win around here.
The Great Tiger Roll
An absolute legend of the horse racing game in recent years, the Gordon Elliott-trained Tiger Roll was more than just a dual Grand National winner.
The fan favourite was also a hero when it came to the Cheltenham Festival. He would win five times at the festival, over hurdles, fences and on the cross-country course, with three of those five wins coming in this race.
His first win at the Cheltenham Festival was as a four-year-old in the Triumph Hurdle in 2014, and his last win came in this race in 2021, seven years later.
In 2017, Tiger Roll would win the National Hunt Chase over fences, giving him both a hurdles and chase win at the meeting, though that was about to go up to a new level thanks to dominance in this race.
He would go back-to-back in this race in 2018 and 2019, two years that would be the peak of his career. After winning this race, just weeks later, he would go to Aintree and win the Grand National.
Those two wins, of course, grabbed the headlines; he was the first back-to-back winner of the Grand National since Red Rum, but his Cross-Country wins should not be underestimated.
He would make it three Cross Country wins in 2021, and not only that, but he won the race by 18 lengths, cementing his legendary status with both the Cheltenham Festival as a whole and with this race individually.
That would be his fifth and final success at the festival and would make him just the third horse to win five or more races at the meeting during their career. The word legend gets spoken about a little too much generally, but with this horse, I think it’s precisely the right word to use for him.