Cheltenham Festival 2024 Results

Rachel Blackmore didn’t wait long to stamp her name on the Cheltenham Festival again, this time winning the opening race of the meeting with Henry De Bromhead trained Slade Steel, beating Willie Mullin’s favourite Mystical Power.  Normal service was then resumed with Mullins taking the Arkle, Champion Hurdle and Mare’s Hurdle.  The only race that a British trainer managed to win on Champion Day was the Ultima Handicap Chase (Kim Bailey) and by the end of Day 1 the Irish were in the lead 6-1 and already it was looking like the writing was on the wall for the 2024 meeting.

Day 2 has been rebranded ‘Style Wednesday’ and the man with the style was again Willie Mullins as he started the day as he ended the first winning the Novices’ Hurdle and Novices’ Chase with heavy odds-on favourites.  With the Brits despairing Harry and Dan Skelton managed to break that run by winning the Coral Cup and then doubling up by winning the Grand Annual Chase.  A bad mistake by the 1/5 odds on favourite in the Champion Chase meant Mullins couldn’t make it three in a row and instead that allowed Rachel Blackmore to make even more Cheltenham history by winning the Champion Chase. That adds to her two Champion Hurdle wins (2021 & 2022) and her Gold Cup in 2022 (she also won the Grand National don’t forget).  The best female jockey in jumps racing history?  Undoubtably.

The Cross-County Chase was cancelled owing to waterlogging on the cross-country course.  That meant there were only six races on Ladies Day in 2024.  The final race was the Bumper so who else would win that but Willie Mullins, who has now won it an astonishing 13 times. Even more impressive that win brought up 100 Cheltenham Festival victories for the Irishman, solidifying his position as the greatest Cheltenham trainer ever.

St Patrick’s Day is all about the Irish and they went into the day 10-3 up against the British trainers.  It was, however, a day for the Brits (for once) with British trainers picking up five wins to Ireland’s two.  Dan and Harry Skelton won the Golden Miller and Ryanair Chase, that gave the pair a strike rate of 4 from 8 up to that point.  Harry Cobden and Paul Nicholls won the Pertemps with 25/1 Monmiral giving a first win for Alex Fergusson as an owner at the Cheltenham Festival.  Gordon Elliot and Jack Kennedy finally got their first win of the week in the Stayer’s with the favourite before another horse owned by an ex-football manager, Harry Redknapp, won the Plate Handicap Chase with Ben Jones and Ben Pauling.

Surprisingly Willie Mullins didn’t pick up a winner on the Thursday but that didn’t last long into the Friday as he trained the first two winners of the day, at decent odds too.  Majborough (6/1) ridden by Mark Walsh in the first and Absurde (12/1) ridden by Paul Townend in the second.  Those two wins meant that Ireland took the Prestbury Cup for 2024, 14-8 up with only five races to go.  It was another Irish trainer, Gordon Elliott, who trained the 33/1 winner in the Albert Bartlett, the biggest priced winner of the week.

With the Gold Cup celebrating its 100th year it got even more attention than usual and that was well deserved as Galopin Des Champs won for the second year in succession.  This landed a fourth Gold Cup for Willie Mullins and Paul Townend in just six years with the second horse to do the double for them after Al Boum Photo (2019 & 2020) – that is also another record for Willie too, the first trainer to do the double double. Astonishing when you consider that before 2019 the legendary trainer thought he might never win the showpiece event and now he’s second on the all time winners list after Arkle trainer Tom Dreaper.

The Festival came to a close with the first mare this century winning the Foxhunters seeing trainer Fiona Needham winning her first festival race and breaking the Irish domination of the final day.  This was followed by the new Mares’ chase that was won again by an Irish trainer, Gavin Cromwell, the race having only ever been won by trainers from the Emerald Isle.  Finally it was another Irishman, Gordon Elliott, who won the final race to give him three wins overall this year.

Willie Mullins was yet again leaps and bounds above any other trainer with 9 wins overall.  Of course the Irish won the Prestbury Cup again (18-9) but you have to wonder if they would have it so easy without Willie who trained 50% of the Irish winners, a third of winners overall and as many winners as all British trainers combined.  With Paul Townend being his premier jockey it is no surprise he rode six of those winning horses and yet again won the Champion Jockey title, the third time in succession and fourth overall.

Despite more drama than ever on the course attendance figures were down again:

• Tuesday: 60,181
• Wednesday: 46,771
• Thursday: 53,918
• Friday: 68,500 (capacity)
• Total: 229,370

There were over 50,000 fewer people in 2024 compared to the record breaking 280,000 in 2020 and around 12,000 down on last year.  Cost of living pressures amidst rising ticket prices, very expensive food and drink at the course, poor parking and unaffordable hotels have been cited as the main reason.  Jump racing needs Cheltenham to survive and flourish, this is part of attracting the next generation of fans.  Cheltenham needs to reflect on whether it is pricing itself correctly for its own future success.  It has already said it will freeze prices next year but is that enough?

If you would like to know more about what happened at the meeting read out Cheltenham Festival 2024 review.

12th March 2024 – Day One (Champion Day)

13th March 2024 – Day Two (Style Wednesday)

14th March 2024 – Day Three (St. Patrick’s Day)

15th March 2024 – Day Four (Gold Cup Day)