Ryanair Chase (Festival Trophy) – St Patrick’s Thursday

Is there a race grown in popularity and stature as much as the Ryanair Chase since its inception at the meeting? Probably not.

Initially, the race that was brought in to be the Cheltenham Gold Cup for horses that didn’t stay, which instantly left a negative label on any horse that won this contest.

Upped from a Grade Two originally, now a Grade One contest, the Ryanair is run over 2m4f and bridges the gap between the Champion Chase and Gold Cup at the very top level of jumping.

The race first took place in 2005, with Thisthatandtother the first ever winner for Ruby Walsh and Paul Nicholls. It became a Grade One contest in 2008 and has remained that ever since.

Part of day three, the traditional headline act on St Patrick’s Thursday was always the Stayers Hurdle. However, the Ryanair is now taking over, the two races are officially classed as joint-features on the racecard.

But when you look at them, the headline 4 pm slot is now where the Ryanair Chase is, the Stayers Hurdle is run before. Couple that with the rise in prize money for the Ryanair, making it the most valuable race on the third day. With the lack of a superstar act in the Stayers and the rise of top-quality horses in the Ryanair, perception is definitely changing.

Tradition may always keep the Stayers in the picture, but for me, the Ryanair Chase is Thursday’s headline act. It is registered title is the Festival Trophy, but it has been sponsored ever since it was introduced to Cheltenham. In its first year that honour went to the Daily Telegraph, but it has been associated with Ryanair ever since 2006.

Race Facts

You’ll no doubt remember from the other races we’ve already covered that Day Three switches onto the New Course, which is where this race is run. It’s left-handed and features seventeen fences that the five-year-old or older horses must jump. There’s a weight restriction of eleven stone eight pound for horses aged five and eleven stone ten for those six or over, with Mares getting a seven pounds allowance.

The race is run over two miles and five furlongs with Ruby Walsh being the leading jockey with 4 wins to his name.  2018 was a great year for the long term sponsor Ryanair as winner Balko Des Flos was also owned by Michael O’Leary the Ryanair chief.  The first time he has won his own race.

Previous Winners

Race Trivia

Despite its relative youth as a race, its prestige means that a couple of jockeys have won it more than once. The honour first went to Ruby Walsh, winning the inaugural running of the race in 2005 as well as the one in 2007. He won it for the first time on the back of Thisthatandtother, then two years later on Taranis.

Both of those rides came on horses trained by Paul Nicholls, who is second place in the trainers record with three wins when he won with the Bryony Frost ridden Frodon in 2019.  This was even more significant as Frost became the first ever woman to win a Grade 1 race at the Cheltenham Festival when she rode home on the seven year old, even more astonishing when you consider she beat the favourite Footpad ridden by the record race winner Ruby Walsh, trained by record festival race winner Willie Mullins.

It is Willie Mullins, however, who holds the record as a trainer in the race with six wins – as is the case with so many Festival races.  He got his third win with Min in 2020, ridden by Paul Townend, and his record fourth win in 2021 with Allaho.  Allaho was ridden by Rachael Blackmore, keeping up the theme of top female jockeys winning this race of late.  Allaho won again in 2022, this time ridden by Paul Townend, bringing up five for Mullins. He won it for the sixth time in 2025 with favourite Fact To File ridden by Mark Walsh.

Blackmore won again in 2023, this time with the Henry de Bromhead trained Envoi Allen, who is a true Festival favourite.  This means Blackmore becomes the first female jockey to win the race more than once.

There are several trainers to win the race twice. We’ll stick with the jockeys for now, though, and Tony McCoy and Paul Townend are the other ones to have picked up more than one win in the race.  What makes McCoy’s wins even more impressive is that he is the only jockey to have won back-to-back races with the same horse. The first win for McCoy and Albertas Run came in 2010 and then again in 2011, thanks to the training of Jonjo O’Neill. McCoy completed his hat-trick in 2015, the same year that he decided to retire from the sport. That was on a horse trained by Alan King who is one of just three trainers to have only won the race once; the other two are Colin Tizzard and Nigel Twiston-Davies.

Only Jonjo O’Neill and Willie Mullins have trained the winning horse two years in a row, with O’Neill’s victories coming courtesy of Albertas Run.  Mullins has in fact won the race three years in a row between 2020-2022 with two of those being with Allaho.  Allaho and Albertas run are the only horses to win the race more than once and both did it back-to-back. Other than Willie Mullins with 6 wins and Paul Nicholls and Henry de Bromhead both with 3 wins, Nicky Henderson and David Pipe are the only other trainers with two wins to their name.

No Longer a Non-Stayers Gold Cup

The tag of this race being a Gold Cup for those that can’t stay the longer distance has almost gone, and anyone still using it should probably stop.

There isn’t a direct path to the Ryanair via the novice chasing division, something we used to have in place but no longer do. The 2m4f race is now a handicap, so it’s unlikely that horses will contest that and then come here. Instead, it’s 2m for the Arkle Chase and stepping up in trip, or it’s 3m for the Brown Advisory Chase, and dropping down in trip.

People don’t just turn up at the Ryanair because they can’t stay the Gold Cup trip, they do so because they want to win the Ryanair.

One of the biggest signals that this race is working comes when fields are released for the three Grade One contests, the Champion Chase, Ryanair and Gold Cup.

Double entries within these races are nowhere near as common as they used to be, with horses having a set target and sticking to it. Of course, there are exceptions, but generally speaking, there are three groups of horses, all on the path to one of these races, rather than having the option to compete in more than one.

They’re wide enough apart, and valuable enough, to stand on their own, and while there were some questions at the start, I think the Ryanair Chase has been a fantastic addition to the Cheltenham Festival.

Racing on the New Course, Same as the Gold Cup

There will be horses that run in the Ryanair and then go on to the Gold Cup, and there will also be some that do things the opposite way around.

I like the fact that both races are run on the same course, and I definitely think that helps horses who are coming back time after time.

However, is it time for a shift with the Brown Advisory Novice Chase? That’s currently run on the Wednesday of the meeting, which uses the old course. This is now the main race to feed horses into future Ryanair or Gold Cup races, so a switch to running it on Thursday or Friday would mean all races are run on the new course.

The Ryanair wasn’t affected too much by this when the 2m4f novices chase was a Grade One, but now that’s a handicap, and isn’t a feeder race, it is perhaps something for the racecourse to look at.

Ryanair Chase & Gold Cup Double Winners

Two of the biggest staying chase races on the UK racing calendar, the highlight of the Cheltenham Festival over both of the last two days.

But has any horse won the Ryanair Chase, and then gone on to win the Gold Cup?

The answer is yes, and so far, just one horse has that honour to their name.

Imperial Commander, trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies and ridden by Paddy Brennan, landed the 2009 Ryanair Chase and then would return to Cheltenham a year later to win the 2010 Gold Cup.

Other horses have run in both since then, but no one else has managed to win both. The closest since has been Cue Card, winner of the 2013 Ryanair Chase. He was going well in the 2016 Gold Cup when he fell with three fences to go. Who knows what would have happened?