Plate Handicap Chase – Champion Day

The Plate has undergone several name changes for sponsorship reasons over the years, but in its current form, the race is known as the TrustATrader Plate.

Ran over two and a half miles, the race is over the chase fences at Cheltenham, with 16 to jump in total, and the race is given premier handicap status by the BHA to show its importance in the calendar.

A large field, tightly compacted at the weights, and a competitive betting heat are a given with Cheltenham handicaps, and this race is no exception. Ran for the first time in 1951, the race had previously been contested on St Patrick’s Thursday, but has now moved to a Tuesday slot.

Race Facts

As with other races on Champion Day, this one is run left-handed on the Old Course at Cheltenham, however, up to 2025 this race was run on St Patrick’s Day on the new course.  As a result the race is now 83 yards shorter with one less fence so consider that when looking into past winners for insights.

It lasts for two miles and four furlongs and there are sixteen fences that need to be jumped by the horses over that distance. It is a handicap race, so there are no specific weight restrictions in place for the horses that run in it. It is open to horses aged five and older and is a Premier Handicap race.

In 2026 the prize money for the race was £150,000 a £45,000 increase on the race in 2017.  The average odds for the winner in this race since 2000 is just over 18/1 and favourites only win 23% of the time so it’s a cracking race for an each-way bet on an outsider.

Previous Winners

Race Trivia

One of the most interesting things we can tell you about this race is that when it was first run in 1951 it should have taken place in March but didn’t. That was because flooding of the Cheltenham course meant that it couldn’t be run as it was intended, so it was shifted to April instead. To add even more interest to that first race, there was no clear winner! Instead it was declared to be a dead heat between both Slender and Canford, with the jockey on Slender a certain Fred Winter. As well as being a name closely associated with the Festival, Winter is the only person who has won the Cheltenham Gold Cup, the Champion Hurdle and the Grand National as both a trainer and also a jockey.

A conversation about Fred Winter would also reveal the fact that he’s the leading jockey in this particular race, having won it on three separate occasions. His first win came in that 1951 race, with his second arriving two years later on Sy Oui and his hat-trick coming in 1958 on the back of Caesar’s Helm. Given that the race has been going for so many years it’s surprising that Winter is the only jockey to have won it more than twice. Plenty of people have done it more than once, though, including Andrew Turnell, Bryan Cooper, Graham McCourt and Tom Scudamore.

As for trainers, John Webber, Josh Gifford, Ryan Price, Tim Forster, Toby Balding and Verly Bewicke have all won it twice. Gifford is an interesting case, having also won it twice as a jockey. None of them hold the record for victories, however, and neither does Venetia Williams nor David Pipe despite both winning it three times. No, the record is held between Bobby Renton, Martin Pipe and Nicky Henderson. You might have noticed there’s something of a family connection in there, with Martin Pipe being the father of David Pipe.

Plate Handicap Now Ran on the Old Course

When you look over the history books at various races, you expect them to be run over the same distance and on the same course. With the Cheltenham Festival operating across both the old and the new course, and a change of day for this race, it’s not the case for the Plate Handicap.

From 2025, the race has switched to be run on the opening day of the meeting, moving from Thursday. The first two days of the meeting are run on the Old Course, before the switch, the race was run on day three, which took place on the New Course.

Although only slight differences, it does have an impact, so when comparing form for the race across different years, make sure you’re looking at which course it was run on.

As for the true course and distance form for this contest, that’s also changed now. The Old Course is used for the first two days of the Cheltenham Festival, as well as the October Showcase Meeting and the November Meeting.

Therefore, if you see a horse with winning form at either of those two meetings in the build-up, you know that it has come on the same course that will be used for this race now. Any other meetings at Cheltenham, then that form isn’t true course form, as it’s run on the New Course.

Look For Ratings Under 141

Handicap races are always interesting, with the theory being that the playing field should be as level as possible for all horses and jockeys taking part in the race. That is especially true for this race, with 28 of the previous 30 winners of the race being rated no higher than 141.

When moving this race from day three to day one in 2025 Festival organisers to choose this as the race immediately preceding the Champion Hurdle, as anything that seems like it’s something of an open field is always likely to keep people interested.

There’s an extent to which this race is the fairer cousin of the Ryanair Chase and this is probably why it was moved from the Thursday to the Tuesday to split them up across the week. Clever punters will watch this one for some indication of how that one is likely to run, therefore.