Entries for the Cheltenham Gold Cup were released this week, and sadly, they set two new records, though these were negative records, rather than positive ones.
Firstly, the number of UK runners in the race has to be a huge concern and highlights the current dominance that Irish trainers are having over those in the UK.
Secondly, a worrying number of entries are in the race at this stage. It’s a number that is down just one on last year, but go back four years, and the change is quite stark.
Seen by many as the biggest week of the year, certainly the biggest week in jump racing, but at the moment, setting two unwanted new records that racing needs to sit up and take note of.
UK Runners Down for Cheltenham Gold Cup
There are a total of 19 entries in the Cheltenham Gold Cup at this stage, and we’ve seen the lowest number of UK entries ever, with just five of the 19 being trained in the UK.
The UK had 11 entries at this stage last year, and that was the lowest for some time when that was announced. To more than half in 12 months, down to five, is a pretty stark warning, highlighting the lack of top quality runners in the UK at the moment.
Over any discipline, if you were asked to name the best horses in racing now, bar a few exceptions, the majority you name would be trained in Ireland.
🏆 19 entries for the Cheltenham Gold Cup:
Ahoy Senor
Banbridge
Conflated
Corbetts Cross
Embassy Gardens
Fact To File
Galopin Des Champs
Gentlemansgame
Gerri Colombe
Grangeclare West
Grey Dawning
Hewick
Il Est Francais
Jungle Boogie
L’Homme Presse
Minella Cocooner
Monty’s Star… pic.twitter.com/CIKpUWxNvn— GG (@ggcouk) January 7, 2025
Go back 15 years, and the change between the UK and Ireland can be seen to even bigger degrees. The 2011 Gold Cup, a classic won by the British trained Long Run, saw 34 entries at this stage, 29 trained in the UK and just five trained in Ireland.
Fast forward to the current day, Ireland has 13 entries, but more importantly than that, all of the leading contenders.
At this stage, the five British entries are certainly in the ‘outsider’ category. Leading the way in the betting for the home team is Grey Dawning, second in the King George at Kempton over Christmas, he’s a best price 33/1 shot for the race.
Other UK entries are Royale Pagaille, L’Homme Presse (both 50/1), The Real Whacker (66/1) and Ahoy Senor (100/1), so the chances of a home winner are pretty slim in the eyes of the bookmakers.
Low Entries Should Also Worry Festival
Racing fans are probably sick of hearing about field sizes in the sport, a much talked about subject. I expect we’ll have a decent field for the Cheltenham Gold Cup, we always do, but the lower number of entries for this race does mean that field sizes are going to come up.
There are just 19 horses in training that are deemed good enough and suitable enough to run in the centrepiece race of the entire Cheltenham Festival. Injuries, alternative races and other issues will whittle that down over the next few weeks before the race.
Compared to last year, not much of a drop, with 20 at this stage last year, we are down one. But when you go further back, 2021 for example, we had 41 entries, in 2019, we had 43 entries.
It feels like those days are long gone, the pool of horses, compared with the races they have on offer, is becoming smaller and smaller.
The Gold Cup should be a race that everyone wants to run in. But this year, nine weeks out from the race, it seems that just 19 want to do that.