JCB Triumph Hurdle – Gold Cup Day

The Triumph Hurdle kicks off the final day of the Cheltenham Festival in style, a Grade One contest to get a big day of racing underway.

Ran on Gold Cup day, it’s not the centrepiece, but an ideal way to get things started, and it is the only Grade One contest at the meeting specifically restricted to four-year-old horses.

Usually attracting a big field, the race is run over two miles and one furlong on the new course at Cheltenham.

To win this contest, you need to mix together a unique blend of raw speed, good jumping, and having early enough development to be able to win at Grade One level aged four.

Some big names have come from this race over the years, including, in recent times, Majborough (2024) and Lossiemouth (2023), both trained by Willie Mullins.  Mullins has also brought some big priced winners to this lately too with Poniros winning at 100/1 in 2025 and then Apolon De Charnie winning at 50/1 in 2026.

The Triumph Hurdle was run for the first time in 1939 at Hurst Park in Surrey. It didn’t get a transfer to Cheltenham until 1965 and soon after the move it gained sponsorship from the Daily Express. In 1997 the race’s sponsorship was taken over by Elite Racing Club, lasting five years before JCB took on the role of sponsors in 2002. Initially the race was run in Cheltenham’s April meeting but shifted to the Festival in 1968.

Race Facts

From the start of Day Three, all races in the Festival are run on the New Course and the Triumph Hurdle is no exception. Much like all of the other races that take place over the week, this one is run left-handed.

It is a race for novice hurdlers aged four-years-old and many consider it to be the leading event for juveniles in the National Hunt calendar. Run over two miles and one furlong, it has eight hurdles and the weight restriction is eleven stone and two pounds. There’s an allowance of seven pound for fillies.

Previous Winners

Race Trivia

Because the race is only open to horses that are aged four, none have ever won it more than once, for rather obvious reasons. As you’ll already have gathered, the same can not be said for the jockeys that have taken part in the race. Charlie Swan, Fred Winter, Richard Dunwoody, Robert Thornton and Steve Smith Eccles have all won it twice, whilst Richard Johnson, Paul Townend and Jimmy Uttley have managed three victories apiece. That is as nothing, however, when compared to the five wins that Barry Geraghty has notched up during his career. That includes back-to-back victories in 2009 and 2010 and then again in 2015 and 2016.

It’s a race that trainers have tended to win more than once, too. Double wins have been managed by Alan King, David Elsworth, David Nicholson, Martin Pipe, Paul Nicholls, Peter Thrale, Ron Smyth, Staff Ingham and Stan Mellor, for example. Ryan Price, Philip Hobbs, and Fred Rimell have all won it three times too.

The out and out leader in the race for so long by some considerable distance ws Nicky Henderson with seven victories, winning his first Triumph Hurdle in 1985 and his most recent in 2019. He shared three of those wins win Barry Geraghty.  That was until Willie Mullins decided he would build on his 2002 win in this race and win it another six times between 2020 and 2026, including five times in a row between 2022-2026.

In that time Mullis has trained some notable names that have gone on to bigger things, such as Majborough (2024) and 2023 winner Lossiemouth who went on to win at the at the Festival for four years in a row culminating in a Champion Hurdle win in 2026.  He hasn’t just trained fancied runners though when you consider the biggest winner of this race in terms of odds came in 2025 when Poniros swaggered through the field in the final half furlong to win at 100/1.  Then in 2026 Apolon De Charnie came in at 50/1 for Willie and his son Patrick riding.  It seems fair to say that Mullins is more likely to take the outright record in The Triumph Hurdle soon rather than Henderson.

It is not unknown for winners of the Triumph Hurdle to then go on and do well in the Champion Hurdle, the premier race of Day One of the Cheltenham Festival. Clair Soleil won this in 1953 before winning the Champion Hurdle in 1955, for example. Persian War was a 1967 Triumph winner before succeeding in the Champion three years running, from 1968 to 1970. Kribensis won the Triumph Hurdle in 1988 then the Champion Hurdle in 1990, whilst Katchit did that particular double thanks to wins in 2007 and then 2008.  The most recent horse to do it was Lossiemouth as mentioned earlier.

The Cheltenham great Tiger Roll also started off his hurdling career by winning this race in 2014.  He went on to win a record three Cross-Country Chases at Cheltenham along with two Grand Nationals.

Long History, but Not Always Ran at Cheltenham

The Triumph Hurdle as a race has a longer history overall than it does at Cheltenham.

It was initially run in 1939, at a venue called Hurst Park. However, as the race progressed, and racing at Cheltenham began to pick up and grow in stature, the race was moved across to Prestbury Park in 1965.

Three years later, in 1968, the race was added to the Cheltenham Festival, as it was back then, and it has remained a key part of the fixture list for the festival ever since.

In years gone by, this was the only juvenile race at the festival, so it attracted a lot of entries, running with a full field on the day.

However, the addition of the Fred Winter Handicap Hurdle, also open to four-year-olds only, has cut back on the number of entries for the Triumph. Runners are still plentiful, but having two races restricted to four-year-olds only has certainly had an impact.

Triumph Hurdle to Champion Hurdle Glory?

Running in the Triumph Hurdle means that horses are having their novice hurdling season at four years old, instead of when they are older, running in the Supreme Novices Hurdle.

This means that horses go into open racing much younger, and for that reason, many actually struggle when they’ve won this contest.

In terms of the biggest hurdling prize over two miles, the Champion Hurdle, only five horses have won the Triumph and then gone on to win the Champion Hurdle later in their career.

These are Clair Soleil (1953), Persian War (1967), Kribensis (1988), Katchit (2007) and more recently Lossiemouth (2023). A low number, but also an indicator of just how difficult it is to have a good four-year-old campaign and then kick on to be even better in later years.

Starting Point for the Great Tiger Roll

If you think of Tiger Roll, you’ll probably think of the Grand National, while Cheltenham fans would also throw in the Cross Country Chase.

However, it was the Triumph Hurdle that started it all off for the Gordon Elliott-trained superstar.

This would be his first Cheltenham Festival success. In 2014, it was also his first success at Grade One level, and the first win he would record for Gordon Elliott and owner Michael O’Leary, having previously raced in the UK before they bought him.

He would add the National Hunt Chase in 2017, before winning the Cross Country Chase in 2018, 2019 and 2021, with Grand National success in 2018 and 2019 alongside this.

Famed for being a staying chaser, winning one of the greatest races on the calendar, this Grade One two-mile hurdle is where it all began for the horse.