When the Cheltenham Festival rolls around, most people want to have a bet on the horses that will win the various races that take place during the week. Some will branch out a little bit and place a wager on the Champion Trainer, mulling up whether to opt for Willie Mullins, Nicky Henderson or another one of the many options open to them. Few people consider whether or not to bet on the Prestbury Cup, however.
That’s because not everyone will have heard of the Prestbury Cup, which is a trophy awarded to either the British or the Irish depending on which nation manages to gain the most winners during Festival week. It doesn’t matter when a horse wins the Gold Cup or the Mares’ Hurdle, if they get a win on the board then that counts towards the nation that they were trainer’s Prestbury Cup tally. We’ll explain it more here.
2026 Prestbury Cup Standings: British v Irish Trainers
The Prestbury Cup Explained
Will British trained horses notch up more wins during the Cheltenham Festival, or will that honour be taken by horses trained in Ireland? That’s the question that is asked by those that award the Prestbury Cup. It is a question that was asked for years before the Prestbury Cup’s invention, actually, ever since Cottage Rake won his first Gold Cup and the Irish fell in love with the Festival.
The competition between the British and Irish trainers was made official in 2014 when the Prestbury Cup was awarded for the first time. In order to win it, one of the nations has to win 15 or more of the 28 races on offer during Festival week, with both nations winning 14 apiece ending up in a tie.
Of course, there are trainers of other nationalities at the Festival so in theory you may not need to get to 15 to win, in reality since the cup started only one horse has won a race that wasn’t trained in Britain or Ireland. That French winner was, however, in 2020 so perhaps in time the Prestbury Cup will be opened up more widely to other nations.
A piece of the actual turf from the racecourse is inserted into the cup, so a part of Cheltenham always goes home with the winners.
Previous Winners
We will try to update this section of the site every year to ensure that the current list of winners of the Prestbury Cup is kept up-to-date. That’s because it’s impossible not to talk about the Prestbury Cup without considering whether or not the British or the Irish have done better at it over the years. The simple answer is that it changes from year to year, with the British starting well and the Irish coming roaring back more recently.
Given that the Prestbury Cup wasn’t created until 2014, there isn’t currently a huge amount of information to work with. The British would doubtless complain that the countless years that they won more races than the Irish aren’t taken into account when using that as the starting date, but given that that is the official year that the competition in its current format got underway, it’s what we have to use as our starting point.
Here is the official tally of the winners of the Prestbury Cup from 2014 until now:
| Year | Total Number Of Races | British Winners | Irish Winners | Cup Winners |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 28 | 13 | 15 | Ireland |
| 2025 | 28 | 8 | 20 | Ireland |
| 2024 | 27* | 9 | 18 | Ireland |
| 2023 | 28 | 10 | 18 | Ireland |
| 2022 | 28 | 10 | 18 | Ireland |
| 2021 | 28 | 5 | 23 | Ireland |
| 2020 | 28 | 10 | 17 | Ireland |
| 2019 | 28 | 14 | 14 | Tie |
| 2018 | 28 | 11 | 17 | Ireland |
| 2017 | 28 | 9 | 19 | Ireland |
| 2016 | 28 | 13 | 15 | Ireland |
| 2015 | 27 | 14 | 13 | Britain |
| 2014 | 27 | 15 | 12 | Britain |
| Total | – | 141 (11 Average) | 219 (17 Average) | Britain 2 Ireland 10 Tie 1 |
* Cross Country Chase abandoned in 2024
Across the 13 years of action that the Prestbury Cup has been in existence for, there have been 361 races in total. Of those, the Irish have won 219 and the British have won 141, with one race being won by a French-trained horse. Put another way, the Irish have won 60.7% of all races across those years compared to the British winning 39.1% of them. In other words, the Irish currently have the upper hand.
Whilst the Irish might be leading the way right now, it won’t last forever. We’ll see in the coming years whether the likes of Brexit will have an impact on the Irish ability to dominate at the Cheltenham Festival, whilst Willie Mullins will surely consider retirement at some stage. The battle for the Prestbury Cup will always be a fierce one, so it’s exciting to see how it pans out in the future.
Indeed, the most recent Prestbury Cup went down to the last race and while Ireland did win again, 15-13, it was the closest since the tied cup in 2019. Whether that is a blip remains to be seen but ultimately whether you support Britain or Ireland the industry as a whole is stronger when both countries are competitive. One big positive for the Brits is that their 13 wins in 2026 were shared between 9 trainers but for Ireland those 15 wins were split between 7. Take Willie Mullins out of the equation and suddenly things would be much closer.
Prestbury Cup History
Cottage Rake, an Irish-trained horse, won the Gold Cup for the first time in 1948. That event alone would have been enough for many from the Emerald Isle to fall in love with events that take place at Prestbury Park every March, but when he won it again in 1949 and then got the hat-trick in 1950 the relationship between the Cheltenham Festival and Irish horse racing lovers was set in stone.
There has long been a complicated relationship between the Irish and the British, which is far too complex to go into here. Sufficed to say, however, that the idea of a bit of friendly competition appealed to all parties, especially the British when they racked up more winners than their neighbours more often than not. Cottage Rake turned out to be the exception that proved the rule: the Irish couldn’t train racehorses.
Irish Take A While To Win Consistently
Given that Cottage Rake’s only other particularly noteworthy wins as a horse came in the Irish Cesarewitch and the King George VI Chase, you can understand why many felt that the horse just loved running in Gloucestershire. It was the spark that lit the touch paper of Ireland’s love for the Cheltenham Festival, but if they were hoping that it was also be the start of an Irish conquering of the British meeting then they were left disappointed.
It took trainers from the Emerald Isle decades to win at Prestbury Park on a regular basis, with winners coming in fits and starts rather than any sort of concerted effort. That can be demonstrated by the fact that just 5% of the winners of races in the 1988 Festival were Irish, creeping to just over 10% two years later. To make matters worse, zero Irish horses managed to make it into the Winner’s Enclosure in the intervening year.
The Millennium Sees Things Change
There were sporadic numbers of Irish-trained winners during the 1980s and 1990s, but never enough for the country to get properly excited about. The numbers began to rise steadily, if not impressively, after the turn of the millennium. Once the 2010s hit, however, things began to change more rapidly for the Irish, not least of all because of the ever-growing influence of a trainer named Willie Mullins.
When you realise that 2010 was the last time that the Champion Hurdle was run without a single horse that emerged from Mullins’ yard, you can get a sense of just how important he has been to the success of the Irish at the Gloucestershire racecourse. Irish runners outperformed their British counterparts to such an extent that a bet on all of them during the 2011, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018 and 2019 Festivals would have left you in profit.
Mullins & Elliott Take Control
Between 2010 and 2019, there were 129 Irish-trained winners at the Cheltenham Festival. Of those, 75 of them came from the yards of either Gordon Elliott or Willie Mullins. If that doesn’t indicate just how important those two trainers are to Ireland’s hopes of success at Prestbury Park then perhaps nothing will, with Mullins being the more prolific of the two thanks to his 50 of those wins.
Names such as Henry de Bromhead, Jessica Harrington and Tony Martin are all well-known in the jump racing world, yet all of them trail behind Mullins in virtually every respect. They all help to add winners to the Prestbury Cup tally, but when you consider that Mullins has won pretty much every race that takes place during Festival week you realise that he’s the true driving force behind the country’s success.
Mullins Pips De Bromhead In Irish Walkover, But He Won’t Mind
The 2021 Festival was unique in the fact it was held behind closed doors due to Covid-19 restrictions in place at the time. This, however, did absolutely nothing to change the wind when it came to Irish domination, with Irish trainers winning 23 out of 28 races, a staggering 82%.
While Prestbury Cup was a walkover long before the final day started but what was not clear was who would be top trainer. Henry de Bromhead was leading Willie Mullins 6-5 before the start of the Gold Cup thanks to wins in the likes of the Champion Hurdle (where Rachael Blackmore became the first female jockey to win the race) and the Queen Mothers Champions Chase.
De Bromhead won the first race of the day and with Mullins one behind Henry pulled out a spectacular victory in the Gold Cup to make the lead to 7-5 with two races to go. In traditional Mullins fashion though he went and won the final two races to make it 7-7 and take the top trainer title thanks to more place finishes. De Bromhead won’t mind though as he became the first ever trainer to win the Champion Hurlde, Champion Chase and Gold Cup at the same meeting.
Mullins Sets A New Record With 10 Wins
There seems to be no end to the number of records Willie Mullins will break at Cheltenham. It is hard to ever imagine someone beating him being honest. In 2022 he solidified his legendary status with an incredible 10 wins from 28 races, that is nearly 36% of all the races that year.
The record he beat was 8 wins and who held that record, it was Mullins of course, meaning even when he doesn’t have anyone else to beat he is still motivated to beat himself.
Without Mullins the race between the British and the Irish would certainly be closer but there is no denying he totally deserves his status and achievements. Mullins even managed to win the Champion Chase in 2022, the one big race that had eluded him up to. This means Mullins has now won all four of the Championship races.
He also matched this feat in 2025, winning ten races again (with 2 second places and 6 third place finishes). In 2026 he only won 8 races, ha ha. I mean the standards this man has set.
Why Have The Irish Been So Successful In Modern Times?
Flippant, simple answers to this question are often thrown around. Usually, its because of the number of stars in Ireland, helping them mop up the graded events, but their success doesn’t just stick there.
Handicap success for Irish runners is also strong when you look at recent trends.
From 2015 to 2026, horses trained in Ireland have secured 58 victories in handicap events at the Cheltenham Festival. This success cannot be solely attributed to Willie Mullins, which some do, as 60 of his 78 wins during this timeframe occurred in non-handicap Graded races.
This trend suggests that Irish horses might be benefiting from favourable assessments by the handicapper, who assigns the weights for each horse in handicap races. It’s something that affects the Irish as a whole, not just one man’s particular success.
There’s always plenty of talk when the handicap weights are released, and more often than not, it focuses on Irish runners who have, in the eyes of some, ‘got in lightly’.
Between 2015 and 2019, Irish-trained horses claimed 35% of the handicap races at Cheltenham. This figure surged to 58% from 2020 to 2024, reinforcing the notion that their dominance is significantly tied to handicap events.
The won seven out of the 12 handicaps that took place at the 2025 festival, which continues to highlight their strength now in this type of race. Having said that in 2026, the closest Prestbury Cup for years, the Irish only won 3/12 and Mullins didn’t win any of them. Just a blip or are we seeing the Brits coming back in the handicaps?
The Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle has proven to be a stronghold for the Irish, with them winning all the races since 2018. Despite ongoing discussions about the handicapper potentially favouring Irish entries, the pattern remains unchanged, they still keep delivering the goods in this race.
The question remains: can British racing close the gap? As of the end of the 2026 festival, it seems there is tentative hope, but a year is a long time in racing. Zooming back out to consider all races at the festival though, is it possible that the Brits may be in with a chance of reclaiming some of their dignity soon. Winning the Prestbury Cup would be a start.
Born in 1956, Willie Mullins will be due to retire at some point in the coming years and with Gordon Elliott stumbling a little following his ban in 2021, it is possible the Cup could swing back to Britain in coming years. Elliott is a relatively young trainer though and if he can get over the difficulties he caused himself with a dead horse photograph then perhaps he can still be the next Willie Mullins, or even better. There are plenty of other elite Irish trainers that can come and fill the void too. The question is then, can the Brits keep up?
Leopardstown Is The Perfect Preparation
Is Irish dominance because they’ve got the best horses, and some nicely handicapped runners? Is it a coincidence that the Irish have taken a massive leap forward since the inception of the Dublin Racing Festival as a showpiece event?
English trainers keep their horses off the track, saving them for the Cheltenham Festival, while Irish runners target the Leopardstown meeting and take each other on, just over a month before Cheltenham.
For me, it’s the perfect preparation, runners are getting into competitive races, winning big prizes, and ensuring they go to Cheltenham match fit and at the top of their game.
I think there’s something in this, and while British trainers will sit there and shake their heads, refusing to run, I think Leopardstown is the ideal preparation, and one of the reasons why Ireland are now really dominating things.
There are also the similarities of Leopardstown and Cheltenham as race tracks to consider. What’s better than running your final prep run on a track that’s very similar to the one that holds the main event? Other than going over to Cheltenham, nothing else prepares the Irish better than Leopardstown.
A left handed track, known for giving a real test, and being a galloping track that rewards good jumping and the ability to travel. This is Leopardstown, but it could easily be said about Cheltenham.
From inception in 2018 until 2024, 48 Cheltenham winners ran at the DRF just over a month before, with 22 of those horses managing to win at both meetings in the same year. That averages at just over three horses per year that were able to win at Leopardstown and follow it up with a win at the festival.
In 2025, two horses completed the double, Kopek Des Bordes and Bambino Fever, both trained by Willie Mullins. However, it could easily have been so much better, State Man and Majborough went down as very unlucky losers, particularly State Man, they would have been double winners had they managed to win at the festival.
Where The Trophy Gets Its Name
You can read about the history of the Cheltenham Festival in-depth elsewhere on this site, but those of you that already have will know that the meeting’s beginnings were initially somewhat fractious. The first ever horse racing meeting in the area in 1815, saw hundreds of people turn out to Nottingham Hill to whoop and cheer as the horses ran around a somewhat improvised circuit, with Confederacy winning the Gloucestershire Stakes.
In 1818, three years after that initial meeting, a more formal and organised meeting took place at Cleeve Hill. For a number of reasons, it was decided that the races couldn’t remain at their new location, instead seeing them moved to nearby Prestbury Park in 1831. That soon became the permanent home of the course that would grow to become Cheltenham Racecourse as we know it to be today.
Geographically, the closest village to where the racecourse stands is one called Prestbury. The village is linked to both the local park and the racecourse, with the course itself often referred to as Prestbury Park. Was the new trophy named after the village of Prestbury, or the park that the racing took place on? That’s something that is a matter of some debate, but to all intents and purposes they mean the same thing, so it doesn’t really matter much.