It was four days of excitement, four days of soggy conditions, but only 3 days of Irish dominance at the 2024 Cheltenham Festival, which went by in the usual blink of an eye after a lot of build up.
Footfall was down again this year creating much doom and gloom forecasting by commentators, and Willie Mullins once again walked away as the top trainer with 9 wins under his belt, including another Gold Cup in the 100th year of the race, while Gordon Elliott had to endure 16 races and 22 horses without a single win, before finally getting on the scoresheet when Teahupoo won the Stayers’ Hurdle.
Nicky Henderson had a festival to forget due to multiple illnesses, but a certain owner and ex-Manchester United manager got his first ever Cheltenham winner when Monmiral came first in the Pertemps Final, swiftly followed by another in the Ryanair Chase.
Rachael Blackmore further cemented her position as the festival’s best ever female jockey after taking the Queen Mother Champion Chase on Captain Guinness, after a very poor show from favourite El Fabiolo, and Paul Townend took top jockey with 6 wins, but interestingly, not a single second or third placed run.
We were one race short after the Cross Country Hurdle was cancelled due to waterlogging, but even without that race, it was one exciting festival. See a full list of 2024 Cheltenham Festival results here.
Ireland Win Two Thirds Of 2024 Races
Once again, Irish trainers dominated at the festival, with 18 of the 27 races run being won by horses from Irish training yards (the Glenfarclas Chase was abandoned due to waterlogging).
Willie Mullins was behind 50% of those 18 wins, bagging 9 winners despite a disappointing Thursday without a single win or even a horse in the places. It just so happens that this was also the only day where Britain fielded more winners than Ireland, St Patrick’s Day…
It probably didn’t help that Nicky Henderson, Britain’s most successful trainer at Cheltenham, had an absolute nightmare as many of his horses became ill before the festival began, and had to be withdrawn.
Constitution Hill was arguably the biggest disappointment, unable to defend his crown in the Champion Hurdle due to inflammation that suggested some sort of respiratory infection.
Unfortunate events like this aside though, the British haven’t managed to win the Prestbury Cup since 2015, and it is hard to see that changing next year, which will make it a decade of Irish dominance at Cheltenham discounting the tie in 2019.
It’s such a strong trend, that in some previous years, if punters had simply backed every Irish contender they would have walked away from the festival with more money in their pocket than they started with.
Why is this happening?
For many in the know, it’s simply the case that British jump racing is in such a sorry state, that trainers in this country just don’t have the calibre of horses required to compete with those from the emerald isle.
This is because owners, and increasingly British based owners, are sending their horses over to Ireland to train and race. British racing is just not attractive enough outside of the Grade 1s and a few others, the prize money isn’t there, so fewer horses are entered, the race is less interesting and the odds less attractive, and this drives down revenue completing a vicious circle.
This can be seen in the declining number of runners in jump races throughout Britain, which averaged field sizes of just 8.2 in 2023, a slight recovery from an all time low of 7.73 in 2022.
As for the races with big pay days, the Irish trainers simply travel their horses to the races that are worth it, and end up winning more than their fair share of them too, which is what has been happening at Cheltenham. In some cases, British trained horses aren’t even entered into Grade 1s because their owners know they have no chance, so the field sizes remain small; in fact, since the 2023 festival only a single Grade 1 race has had more than 9 runners.
Additionally, there are a number of courses in Ireland that are similar to Prestbury Park, and a startling number of Irish trained Cheltenham winners ran at one of the in the race previous to their Cheltenham win. Take Galopin Des Champs, for example; trained by Willie Mullins, the horse has raced almost exclusively at Leopardstown, Punchestown, and Cheltenham, with a race at Leopardstown almost exactly a month before every one of his Cheltenham appearances (and wins).
It might not have impacted the enjoyment on the day for the majority of racegoers this year, but this Irish domination not good for racing as a whole, and British Racing needs to do something about it.
Willie Mullins Passing 100 Wins
It was a hugely successful Cheltenham for Willie Mullins.
He was the top trainer at the end of the festival, with 9 winners, but that is nothing new for Mullins, who has claimed this honour on ten previous occasions.
Much more notable, was the fact that he passed the benchmark of 100 wins at Cheltenham – the first trainer ever to do so – when Mullins’ son, Patrick, rode Jasmin De Vaux to win the Champion Bumper. However, while it was this race that took him into triple figures, it was a couple of others that were the main talking points of the festival.
The 100 win milestone came on Wednesday, having already bagged the Unibet Champion Hurdle with State Man, the 2/5 favourite and Handicap Hurdle winner from 2022, but he had 3 more wins to come on Friday.
Including his 4th Gold Cup victory.
Galopin Des Champs, another favourite a 10/11, rode to victory in the Gold Cup, defending his title from the previous year, becoming only the 9th horse to win the trophy twice, and making Mullins the only trainer to have ever won the race twice in a row with two different horses. He did it first with Al Boum Photo in 2019 and 2020.
With so many horses racing on the day, Willie Mullins totted up a total of £1,569,474 in total prize money, including an incredible run of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th places in the Novices’ Hurdle.
100th Gold Cup Anniversary
If there was any year a trainer would break the 100 win milestone, 2024 would be it.
This was the 100th anniversary of the Gold Cup, so in many ways it was fitting that Mullins won it after winning 100 races at the festival in his career.
With the big race not off until 3:30, racegoers had plenty of time for the excitement to build, and there really was something in the air this year, with everyone aware they would be witnessing a historic race.
To celebrate the centenary, The Gold Cup was toured to several different racecourses, and the Gold Cup Community Fund was established to fund projects aimed at helping those who live close to the course.
There was also a charity art auction, and limited edition memorabilia was put on sale such as special sets of Gold Cup playing cards and a book titled Let No Memories Fade.
Galopin Des Champs Does the Double
At 10/11, Galopin Des Champs was the clear favouite to win the Gold Cup for a second time this year, but as we know, favourites lose more often than they win, and big upsets are not exactly uncommon at Cheltenham.
With regular jockey Paul Townend on his back, Galopin Des Champ secured a pretty decisive victory in the Gold Cup, making him only the 9th horse to win the race twice and only the 8th to do so twice in a row.
The win also gave Paul Townend the honour of joining legendary jockey Pat Taaffe as the only two riders to have won the trophy 4 times.
Galopin Des Champ held just behind the leaders for much of the race, but after Fastorslow unseated their rider at the 16th, Townend struggled to press ahead when he wanted to and was pinned in 3rd. There was an opening just before the 2nd last which the experienced jockey guided Galopin Des Champ through, taking the lead and then showing his quality with a massive jump over the last generating a huge roar from the crowd.
After that it was simply a case of staying on up the hill which he did, finishing a good 3 or 4 lengths in front, and winning with confidence.
Trainer, Willie Mullins, said the horse has now entered the ‘superstar category’, and also confirmed they would go for it again in 2025, so there could be a 3rd Gold Cup win in the future for Galopin Des Champs.
Rachael Blackmore Wins the Queen Mother Champion Chase
Only 6 horses ran in the Queen Mother Champion Chase, so when the 2/9 favourite, El Fabiolo, took a tumble early on at the 5th (after never looking great shakes to be honest), it opened the door for a couple of others to take the win.
Rachael Blackmore on Captain Guinness had come a close second in the same race a year previous, ultimately losing out to the favourite, Energumene, and before the off a similar scenario wouldn’t have been surprising, despite only being the 3rd most fancied horse at 17/2.
With 3 fences to go, Edwardstone, the 2nd favourite, was out in front with Captain Guinness in second. They battled hard over the 3rd last but Edwardstone kept the lead, right up until the final bend approaching the second last when Blackmore urged Captain Guinness in front.
Then, going over the fence, Edwardstone jumped short and tumbled to the ground on landing, leaving only Gentleman De Mee (16/1) as a real threat. The horse gained on Captain Guinness after the last as they raced towards the finish, and at one point it looked like Blackmore’s horse had run out of steam, but a last burst of energy got him across the line a length ahead of Gentleman De Mee.
The win clearly meant a lot to Rachael Blackmore, the festival’s greatest ever female jockey, as it was her first win in steeplechasing’s sprint division championship, but it was no doubt even more special to win it on Captain Guinness.
This was his first win in 13 Grade 1 races, but even more incredible, just 3 months earlier the horse was diagnosed with a heart problem. Henry de Bromhead carefully nursed Captain Guinness back to health, not pushing him too hard, and working with a heart specialist to ensure the horse was safe to race.
They tested him at Leopardstown a month before Cheltenham, where he came 3rd and, ironically, El Fabiolo won, then rested him until the festival came around.
You know what they say about Guinness: “Good things come to those who wait”.
Harry Redknapp and Alex Fergusson Experience Their First Festival Winners
This wasn’t the first time Alex Ferguson won a double, but the way he was jumping up and down in celebration, you would be forgiven for thinking it was the first time he had won anything at all.
The Manchester United managerial legend has long been a fan of horse racing and has owned shares in many horses, but a win at Cheltenham is something he had never experienced, until 2024.
Then he went and got two in the space of an hour.
Monmiral broke Ferguson’s duck, in the Pertemps Handicap Hurdle, before Protektorat romped home in the Ryanair Chase – and neither were exactly expected to win, priced at 25/1 and 17/2 respectively.
Fergie, who is 82, managed to break a rib celebrating a win of another of his horses in Bahrain a few months ago, so there was some concern as Protektorat took the win in the Ryanair Chase, but luckily, he left the festival in one piece.
Fellow old school top flight manager, Harry Redknapp, also had some success at Cheltenham this year, but as in football, not quite so much as Fergie.
At 8/1, Shakem Up’Arry bagged Redknapp his first ever festival win on Thursday in the Plate Handicap Chase, but it was 18/1 longshot The Jukebox Man competing for the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle which caused the most excitement.
The outsider almost made it two for ‘Arry, leading for most of the race and widening his lead to about 4 lengths after the last, but astonishingly, 33/1 even longer shot Stellar Story absolutely rocketed up the hill and took the race by a nose.
Still, a good day for ex-football managers turned race horse owners.
Attendance Down: A Cause for Concern?
When the crowds descend on Cheltenham each March, there are a few things that you can be sure of: first, festival attendees will experience some thrilling racing, and second, all of the local accommodation providers will put their prices up.
This second point is being partly blamed for the drop in attendance this year, down 7% on 2023 which was in turn down 14% on the record of over 280,000 in 2022.
It’s probably a bit too soon to call this a worrying trend if you ask me, and there are several contributing factors, but much was made of it in the press.
The post covid 2022 boom probably created something of an unnatural spike in attendance, given that everyone was desperate to enjoy themselves again after those depressing lockdowns finally looked to be a thing of the past; but then a cost of living crisis, rampant inflation and soaring fuel prices hit, so when attendance dropped in 2023 it should probably have been expected.
Not to mention the fact that attendance was capped at 68,500 a day, which would give a maximum potential attendance of 274,000, meaning 2.5% of that 14% drop was engineered.
If we go back to the last festival before Covid hit, attendance was 251,684, just 2% down on the previous record. This year, 229,370 people visited Prestbury Park, which is 8% less than in 2020 and yes, it includes one of the quietest days at the festival since 2009, but the Gold Cup day was sold out, and given the state of the economy it is an understandable decline rather than a worrying one in my opinion.
The weather probably didn’t help either, it was a pretty soggy festival, as you can tell from this video of people trying to leave at the end of the day:
Je me souviendrai longtemps de mon premier voyage à #CheltenhamFestival 😂 pic.twitter.com/xCGNAabKOY
— Marie Rohaut (@Marie_Rohaut) March 12, 2024
Despite this, hospitality sales were stronger than ever, and club ticket sales were in line with last year. The drop in numbers seems to be down to the lower priced tickets, and also the fact that people are cutting down the number of days they attend. This comes back to the accommodation and other additional costs involved for those travelling in from far away.
I say the crowds will be back in bigger numbers once the state of the economy improves – I really don’t think interest is dying off.
Cross Country Chase Abandoned
There was a rare instance of a race being cancelled at this year’s festival too, after a reported 11mm of rain fell throughout Tuesday, leading to the abandonment of the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase on Wednesday.
Conditions had become unraceable at some parts of the course due to the weather, with certain areas waterlogged.
There was talk of rescheduling the race to the Friday, but with further rainfall forecast in the days to come, the difficult decision was taken to call it off.
Safety had to take priority, and as a result, all other races on the Wednesday had their start time adjusted slightly, beginning a little later than planned.
The festival does not usually suffer single race abandonments, it is actually more common for the whole festival to be cancelled, as it was in 2001 due to foot and mouth, or for whole days to be cancelled, as occurred in 2008 due to high winds.
Had it gone ahead, the likelihood would have been another Irish win, maybe even another for Willie Mullins, although Gordon Elliot and Henry de Bromhead had both declared some real contenders too.
Ladies Day Become Style Wednesday: Has Cheltenham Gone Woke?
A move that angered many racing fans was the rebrand of Ladies Day, a staple feature at Cheltenham since Queen Victoria first wore a hate to the races in the 1830s.
Ladies day was actually quietly phased out in 2018, when they stopped using the term and less and less advertising referred to the second day at Cheltenham as such, but this year organisers officially rebranded it as ‘Style Wednesday’.
Festival organisers claim the move is to open up the festival and make it more accessible to everyone, especially young people, which is why they also relaxed the dress code, allowing jeans and trainers. They want to promote ‘fast horses and slow fashion‘.
Men can now enter the best dressed competition too, jackets and ties are no longer a requirement, and although fancy dress is still not allowed, it certainly doesn’t feel quite so special anymore.
One of the things people loved about Ladies Day is that it was an occasion in and of itself. A reason to go a bit mad with your outfit. Society has relaxed dress codes almost everywhere these days, standards are ankle boot high, so events like Ladies Day really stood out as something exciting and unique.
Of course, people can still dress up if they want to, but they don’t have to, so the whole thing will become diluted and eventually feel like every other day at the festival. Some have gone as far as to accuse the festival as having ‘going woke’, and trying to make it a ‘gender neutral’ day.
Racegoers still made a big effort this year though, and hopefully that will continue whatever the day is officially called. To be honest the vast majority of punters didn’t even seem to notice.