Galopin Des Champs is looking to be only the fourth horse to win the Gold Cup three times with Golden Miller, Arkle and Best Mate to ever record this feat before.
Willie Mullins’ trained horse has won the past two years at the racecourse and is the odds-on favourite to complete the three-peat.
Can Galopin Des Champs make history? 🏆
— ITV Racing (@itvracing) March 14, 2025
The famous treble is on the cards today in the #CheltenhamFestival Gold Cup 👀 pic.twitter.com/ocVjJGEiHE
The Gold Cup has been going since 1819 but has faced some changes to the race over the years.
It started as a flat race looking over Cleeve Hill, which was three miles long. After a few changes in 1924, they ran their first steeplechase, which was over three miles and three furlongs.
Now, the Gold Cup is the biggest race at the festival, and some could argue in the UK, but it wasn’t always like this. In the 1900s, it was the secondary event to the National Hunt Chase.
In 1931, it was abandoned for the frost, but for the five years after, the sport saw the most dominant horse ever compete in Golden Miller, who won five on the bounce, which also included a Grand National in that time.
The Gold Cup has been at the new course for 66 years now, as it was moved in 1959. In the 1960s, we saw Arkle dominate, winning consecutively for three years from 1964 till 1966.
Proving how good Arkle’s dominance was, he was given 1/10 odds, which saw punters get back £1 from their £10 stake, given Arkle the shortest-priced winner in the race history.
Cheltenham festival was cancelled for the first time since WW2 in 2001 for a foot and mouth disease outbreak where they held replacement for the Gold Cup in Sandown called ‘The Gold Trophy Chase’.
This didn’t go down well with supporters as they felt that it lack strength in depth, and the Gold Cup returned in 2002, where we saw another dominant horse on display.
Best Mate is the most recent horse to win the Gold Cup three times, and with his dominant display, they have named an enclosure after him.
The famous Gold Cup trophy was stolen from a house in Gloucestershire in 2010, but it was found and returned to the racecourse in 2018 and has been handed to the winning Jockey since 2019.
2020 was a year of controversy for the Cheltenham festival and the Gold Cup with Covid-19 spreading rapidly as 250,000 fans rolled into Prestbury Park.
2021 saw the first and hopefully last Gold Cup behind closed doors due to Covid restrictions with the year after the fans return to see the Queen of Cheltenham Rachael Blackmore pick up her first Gold Cup with A Plus Tard.
Since then, we have seen history created by Galopin Des Champs, who has won the last two Gold Cups with Jockey Paul Townend and trainer Willie Mullins.
Here he is 😍
— CheltenhamRacecourse (@CheltenhamRaces) March 14, 2025
GALOPIN DES CHAMPS, the defending @Boodles Gold Cup champion 💪 pic.twitter.com/xRs7yOZT4u
The French bred horse has won 14 of the 22 races he has competed in, which shows his power and athleticism on the course.
Will we see the defending champ win three on the spin and become only the fourth horse to do it? Will we see a new winner in Inothewayurthinkin, who is second favourite, or can the dynamic duo of Blackmore and Henry De Bromhead win with Monty’s star?
