The Cheltenham Festival is a four-day racing festival and will take place in 2024 from Tuesday, 12 March to Friday, 15 March. The highlight of the festival is the Cheltenham Gold Cup, which places £625,000 up for grabs and helps to create a lot of anticipation around the festival. Being able to lift this trophy or any other at the Cheltenham Festival is highly prestigious.
Several other races, including the Queen Mother Champion Chase and the Champion Hurdle, are standout events at the festival and attract some of the biggest, best horses in racing. It’s not just the races that generate such a buzz at and around the festival. Apart from anything else, visiting the Cheltenham Festival is an experience to relish, from hearing the famous ‘Cheltenham Roar’ which goes up when the first race of the festival, the Supreme Novices Hurdle’ gets under way, through to following the races, to discussing the upcoming races at the bars with fellow racing enthusiasts.
Below is a look at the main race of the festival, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, and some of the favourites to win the race.
The Cheltenham Gold Cup
The prestigious Cheltenham Gold Cup is a steeplechase and is contested over three miles and 2.5 furlongs. The first ever Gold Cup race took place in 1819 on Cleeve Hill, which overlooks the current racecourse course, and was run over three miles. It wasn’t until 1924, however, that the race was run as the world knows it today. Even then it was run on the Old Course, not today’s racetrack. Since then, the race has witnessed some prolific and much-loved horses dashing for its finish line, including Golden Miller in the 1930s, Arkle in the 1960s, Desert Orchid in 1989 and, in the noughties, Best Mate.
But who will win the Cheltenham Gold Cup 2024? Below is a look at some of the favourites to cross the finish line first and net their jockey the lion’s share of the prize money.
Galopin des Champs
Galopin des Champs is the 2023 Gold Cup winner and the favourite to win this year’s race at 6/5. In December 2023, the horse rediscovered its winning form in an impressive win at the Grade One Savills Chase at Leopardstown, Ireland. The absence of arch rival Fastorslow, who had beaten the French-bred thoroughbred in its two previous starts, made life slightly easier for way for rider Paul Townend to steer his horse to victory and Galopin des Champs do trainer Willie Mullins proud.
Fastorslow
Galopin des Champs may have the best Cheltenham odds, but fellow French-bred Fastorslow, trained by Martin Brassil, is expected to push hard. The thoroughbred has received the next best odds of winning the famous race at 4/2.
Jockey JJ Slevin will be confident that his horse can take Galopin des Champs’s scalp a third time. Slevin rode Fastorslow to a thrilling victory over Galopin des Champs and Bravemansgame at the Punchestown Gold Cup in April 2023. A blunder at the final fence by Bravemansgame lent a big hand. Later in the year, at the Grade One John Durkan Memorial Chase, Slevin also took Fastorslow past the post and showed the racing world his April triumph over the 2023 Gold Cup winner had been no stroke of luck. Fastorslow has three more confirmed entries for races before the Gold Cup itself: the Irish Gold Cup Chase and the Dublin Chase, both in Leopardstown, and, at the Cheltenham Festival, the Ryanair Chase.
Gerri Colombe
French-bred Gerri Colombe, trained by Gordon Elliott, is an exciting prospect for the Gold Cup and enjoys odds of 10/1. The horse has shown consistently reliably form throughout 2023 by finishing in either first or second place each race. In November, in the Champion Chase at the Down Royal, Colombe rode down Envoi Allen in an exciting finish, despite not running on ideal conditions. The soft ground of the New Course at Cheltenham and the extra quarter of a mile will be much more to Gerri Colombe’s liking and could result in a surprising but not totally unexpected 2024 Gold Cup winner.
Shishkin
Trainer Nicky Henderson may be slightly nervous about Shishkin’s chances of winning the Gold Cup. Although the horse was reported to be in good shape, a refusal to run at the 1965 Chase in Ascot in November, followed by a stumble at the final fence in the King George in December may have got his trainer and his backers doubting recently whether Shishkin will fulfil his potential. That’s despite the horse being a multiple Grade One winner over hurdles and flats. Shishkin has odds of 9/1.
The Cheltenham Festival is an exhilarating racing festival and boasts the Gold Cup as its flagship event. The horses above have the best odds, but other contenders include Bravemansgame, Hewick and L’homme Presse. All have odds of 16/1.
Photos: JTW Equine Images, Past the Wire
