The Cheltenham Gold Cup is a Grade 1 National Hunt horse race run on the New Course at Cheltenham Racecourse in England, over a distance of about 3 miles 2½ furlongs, and during its running there are 22 fences to be jumped. The race takes place each year during the Cheltenham Festival in March.
The Cheltenham Festival is a horse racing-based meeting in the National Hunt racing calendar in the United Kingdom, with race prize money second only to the Grand National. The four-day festival takes place annually in March at Cheltenham Racecourse in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. It usually coincides with Saint Patrick's Day and is particularly popular with Irish visitors.
Rupert "Ruby" Walsh is an Irish former jockey. He is the second child, and eldest son, of former champion amateur jockey Ted Walsh and his wife Helen. Widely regarded as one of the greatest National Hunt jockeys of all time, Walsh is the third most prolific winner in British and Irish jump racing history behind only Sir Anthony McCoy and Richard Johnson.
The Champion Hurdle is a Grade 1 National Hunt hurdle race in Great Britain which is open to horses aged four years or older. It is run on the Old Course at Cheltenham over a distance of about 2 miles and ½ furlong, and during its running there are eight hurdles to be jumped. The race is the last leg of the Triple Crown of Hurdling and is scheduled to take place each year on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival in March.
The Stayers' Hurdle is a Grade 1 National Hunt hurdle race in Great Britain. It is open to horses aged four years or older. It is run on the New Course at Cheltenham over a distance of about 3 miles, with twelve hurdles to be jumped. The race is scheduled to take place each year during the Cheltenham Festival in March.
Timothy James Murphy, known as Timmy Murphy, is a retired Irish jockey who competed mostly in National Hunt racing. A multiple Grade 1-winning rider, he is best known for his victory on Comply or Die in the 2008 Grand National. He overcame problems with alcohol, which had led to a prison sentence after a drunken incident on a plane in 2002, to resume a successful career and win the 2005 jump jockey of the year Lester Award. He won the Irish Grand National on Davids Lad in 2001, and the Scottish Grand National on Merigo in 2010 and 2012. He had eight winners at the Cheltenham Festival, the first in 1997 and the last in 2009. He recorded his 1000th win in Britain in 2010. Following an injury in a fall in 2010 he was unable to regain his licence to ride over jumps and switched codes, riding on the flat from 2015 until 2018, when he retired from race riding.
The Imperial Cup is a National Hunt hurdle race in Great Britain which is open to horses aged four years or older. It is run at Sandown Park over a distance of about 2 miles, and during its running there are eight hurdles to be jumped. It is a handicap race, and it is scheduled to take place each year in March.
Paddy Brennan is a retired Irish jump jockey. He was champion conditional jockey in the 2004/05 season and won the 2010 Cheltenham Gold Cup on Imperial Commander. He was based in Gloucestershire as stable jockey at Fergal O'Brien's yard for several years before his retirement in April 2024.
Rock On Ruby, is an Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse. A specialist hurdler he is best known for his performances in the 2011–2012 National Hunt season, when he won the Gerry Feilden Hurdle at Newbury in November before winning Britain's most prestigious hurdle race, the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham on 13 March. After failing to make a mark as a steeplechaser he returned to hurdling and won the Relkeel Hurdle in 2014 and the Ascot Hurdle in 2015.
Edward O'Grady is an champion Irish National Hunt racehorse trainer. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, O'Grady was the leading Irish trainer at Cheltenham by number of winners. He was played by Pierce Brosnan in the 1980 film Murphy's Stroke.
Diadem (1914–1931) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 1000 Guineas in 1917. She went on to become a top sprinter, recording two victories in both the King's Stand Stakes and the July Cup. In total she won 24 of her 39 races. Diadem was bred and owned by Edgar Vincent, 1st Viscount D'Abernon, and trained by George Lambton. The Diadem Stakes at Ascot Racecourse was named after her.
Bryan Cooper is a retired Irish National Hunt jockey and is the son of trainer Tom Cooper and his mother is Geraldine Cooper née O'Brien. Cooper was born in Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland and in his short career scored notable wins at the National Hunt Cheltenham Festival.
More Of That is an Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse, who competes in National Hunt racing. After winning his only race as a novice he won two handicaps and the Grade II Relkeel Hurdle before taking the Grade I World Hurdle at the 2014 Cheltenham Festival.
Faugheen is an Irish Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the 2015 Champion Hurdle and back-to-back Christmas Hurdles in 2014 and 2015. His best performance on a racecourse came in the 2016 Irish Champion Hurdle for which he was rated the best two-mile hurdler of the 21st century. His career started over Point-to-point fences as a four-year-old and was sent racing under National Hunt rules in the 2013/2014 season where he emerged as a leading Novice hurdler, winning all of his races including the Dorans Pride Novice Hurdle, Cheltenham Novices Hurdle and Herald Champion Novice Hurdle acquiring the nickname "The Machine" in the process.
Noel Fehily is a retired Irish professional horse racing jockey. Throughout his professional career, he has enjoyed substantial success including the King George VI Chase and Champion Hurdle, despite enduring significant injuries.
The Thinker was an Irish-bred British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse, best known for his win in the 1987 Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Tiger Roll is a retired Irish-bred Thoroughbred racehorse who competed in National Hunt racing and won the Grand National in 2018 and 2019. He has also won five times at the Cheltenham Festival: the Triumph Hurdle in 2014, the National Hunt Chase Challenge Cup in 2017 and the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase in 2018, 2019 and 2021.
Paul Townend is an Irish jockey who competes in National Hunt racing. Townend comes from Lisgoold in County Cork and is the stable jockey for Irish trainer Willie Mullins. Townend has worked for Mullins since he was just fifteen years of age, beginning his career as an apprentice flat racing jockey. He is a six-time Irish jump racing Champion Jockey. He was champion in the 2010–11, 2018–19, 2019–20, 2020–21, 2021–22, and 2022–23 seasons.
Rachael Blackmore MBE is an Irish jockey who competes in National Hunt and flat racing. In 2021, she became the first female jockey to win the Grand National in the 182-year history of the race. She also became the first woman to be leading jockey at the Cheltenham Festival with six victories, including the Champion Hurdle, in 2021. The following year she became the first female jockey to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Paisley Park is an Irish-bred, British-trained racehorse best known for his achievements in winning the Grand National and Cheltenham Gold Cup. He showed promise when finishing second in a National Hunt Flat race on his debut but nearly died when he contracted colic shortly afterwards. He won one race as a novice hurdler in the 2017/18 National Hunt season and established himself as an outstanding stayer in the following season when he won the Betfair Stayers' Handicap Hurdle, Long Walk Hurdle, Cleeve Hurdle and Stayers' Hurdle. In the 2019/20 National Hunt season he won the Long Distance Hurdle and a second Cleeve Hurdle. In his next campaign he took the Long Walk Hurdle again and ran third in the Stayers' Hurdle.
