Mrs Paddy Power Liberthine Mares’ Chase – Gold Cup Day

The Liberthine Mares’ Chase (sponsored name Mrs Paddy Power Mares’ Chase) is the newest race at the Cheltenham Festival, established in 2021.  The race has been added to Gold Cup Day and replaces the Novices’ Champion Chase that was held on Champion Day.  As a result of this the Fred Winter Juvenile Hurdle moves from Ladies day to the vacant slot on day one and the Grand Annual Chase moves from the last day to Ladies day to fill in all the gaps.

The Mare’s Chase is run over the same distance as the race it replaces, 2 miles and 4 furlongs.  The main reason this race has been created is to increase the number of elite races for female horses to help encourage owners to buy young fillies’ and thereby supporting the breeding industry as a whole.  The Novices’ Chase was selected for removal as it is felt there are already enough opportunities for novices’ at Cheltenham.

Being a Grade 2 race and replacing a Listed race also means it increases the number of Grade races at the festival as whole helping to raise the prestige of the meeting further.  Being a new race there is not much history to talk about yet, apart from the fact that it was a Willie Mullins trained horse, Colreevy, who won the inaugural race in 2021 and another Mullins trained horse, Elimay, in 2022.  That may seem predictable but it shows what a Cheltenham legend Mullins is, he finds a way into the history books of almost every single Festival race.  Below we look at what we might expect from this race as it beds in over the coming years.

Race Facts

Being a Gold Cup Day races means the Mares’ Chase is run on the new course.  The number of fences to be jumped is 17 in the Grade 2 four mile four and a half furlong run.

The winning time on the first run last year was 5 minutes 16.25 seconds and there were ten runners, in 2022 there were 8 runners and the winning time was 5 minutes 14.62 seconds.

Previous Winners

Race Trivia

There is not a lot to say about this race other than the fact it is new and designed to increase the number of mares’ races at the festival.  It is the first mares’ race on Gold Cup Day and sits alongside the Mares’ Hurdle on Champion Day (Grade 1) and the Dawn Run Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle on St Patrick’s Thursday (Grade 2).

The registered name of the race is the Liberthine Mares’ Chase named after the high class mare owned by Robert Waley-Cohen, the Cheltenham course chairman from 2011-2019.

Scheduled as the second to last race of the Festival it is expected that this race will draw the last of the crowds before people start to filter out before the last handicap race of the day.  This means there is a lot of expectation on this race as the last grade race to be run at the most famous jump race meeting in the world.

The first running of the race in 2021 was a smooth affair on good to soft ground.  It culminated in a battle to the line between Irish second favourite Colreevy, at 9/4, and French favourite Elimay.   Of course, both of those horses were trained by Willie Mullins, I mean who else has the Cheltenham pedigree to judge a new race to perfection and hit a 1-2 finish on the first time of asking.  It was the Paul Townend ridden Colreevy who pipped Elimay to the post to create a little nugget of history and prestige for this brand new race.

Elimay then went one better in 2022, also at 9/4, in another tight battle to the line between four mares’, bringing up two from two and a 100% record for Mullins.

Mullins was second in 2023 but it was another Irish trainer, Colm Murphy, that won the race to make it three wins from three for the Irish.  Interestingly no favourite has yet won this race but the average odds of the winner is only just above 2/1 from those three runs, showing that the fancied horses are the ones to win it so far.

CBO Rating | 7/10

It is a little unfair of us to rate this race too early in it’s history but from its first and second outing it proved to be an exciting affair.  Given the first ever race took place behind closed doors due to the unique circumstances in 2021 it was only in 2022 and 2023 that we really got to see what the spectators thought of the race.  Given the roars we heard with a tight battle to the line we can firmly say the race has started out as a big success.

Given the fact that Mullins won the inaugural and second ever race will also add to the vibe around this Mare’s Chase and you can expect he will be well up for winning it again next year.  That is a great thing for the future of this race as any race with multiple Mullins horses in are sure to be competitive.

You can read more about the beginnings of this race on our news page about the new mares’ race.

Conclusion

There are those that will miss the Grand Annual Chase on Gold Cup Day.  It is the oldest race at the festival founded in 1834 and many saw it’s place as second to last on the final day as fitting for it’s status.

It is ironic then that the oldest races still going at the Festival is replaced by the newest race.  It’s not so bad though as the Annual Chase moves to Ladies Day and is still a firm fixture of the festival.

Change is often a good thing and the addition of the new mares’ race is hoped to spice up the meeting that has changed little since a fourth day was added in 2005.