The Tingle Creek Chase is a Grade 1 National Hunt steeplechase 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 thirteen fences to be jumped. The race is scheduled to take place each year in early December.
Moscow Flyer was an Irish-bred and -trained National Hunt horse who ran over distances between 2 miles and 2+1⁄2 miles (3.2–4 km). A top-class horse who achieved a Timeform rating of 184, he won the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 2003 and 2005, the Tingle Creek Chase in 2003 and 2004 and the Arkle Challenge Trophy in 2002.
Azertyuiop was a French-bred National Hunt racehorse, who specialised in two-mile steeplechases. He won the Arkle Challenge Trophy at the 2003 Cheltenham Festival, going on to win the Queen Mother Champion Chase the following year, and then coming home third in the same race in 2005. He was trained by Paul Nicholls and was ridden by Ruby Walsh in every chase bar one. He is owned by John Hales who also owned One Man, who won the 1998 Queen Mother Champion Chase and the 1995 and 1996 King George VI Chase. His name derives from the top row of letters on the French keyboard layout.
Kauto Star was a French-bred National Hunt champion thoroughbred racehorse trained by Paul Nicholls in Somerset and owned by Clive Smith. He was known for his versatility and longevity, being the only horse ever to be top rated over 2 miles, 2.5 miles and 3 miles in the same season. He is also the first horse ever to win a Grade 1 race in six consecutive seasons, which he extended to seven. His Racing Post rating of 192 is the highest ever awarded to a National Hunt horse since those ratings began in 1987. He won the Cheltenham Gold Cup twice, in 2007 and 2009, becoming the first horse to regain the cup. In 2009, he beat Denman by thirteen lengths, after losing to the same horse by seven lengths the previous year. Kauto Star tried for three more years to win the race again, but the best placing he could achieve was third in 2011. He also won the King George VI Chase a record five times. Kauto Star was one of the most successful steeplechasers of any era: he finished his career with a National Hunt record of £3,775,883 in earnings, £2,375,883 of which was winner's prize money, a £1,000,000 bonus for the completion of the 2006/2007 Stayers Chase Triple Crown and a £400,000 reward for heading the BHA Table of Merit in the 2006/2007 season.
Paul Frank Nicholls is a British National Hunt horse trainer with stables at Ditcheat, Somerset. A relatively successful jump jockey, Nicholls has become the leading National Hunt trainer of his generation in Britain, finishing the 2007–08 season with 155 winners and a record £4 million in prize money. As of April 2023, he has trained over 3,500 winners, won the 2012 Grand National, four Cheltenham Gold Cups and has been crowned British jump racing Champion Trainer fourteen times.
Philip Hobbs is a British racehorse trainer specializing mainly in National Hunt racing. He is based at stables near Minehead, Somerset.
Richard Johnson is a retired English National Hunt jockey. Johnson is the second most prolific winner in the history of National Hunt Racing behind Sir Anthony McCoy, a long-time rival of Johnson's, with over 3500 winners. Richard Dunwoody previously held the record with 1874.
Viking Flagship (1987–2000) was an Irish racehorse who began his racing career in October 1989 as a 2-year-old. He was first trained by his breeder, Eithne C Holdsworth, in Co. Kilkenny and then by Martin Pipe. He had 18 starts in Ireland with these two trainers, all in Ireland, but did not win any of them.
Twist Magic was a French-bred, British-trained National Hunt horse trained by Paul Nicholls. He specialised as a two-mile chaser, and recorded many top class wins such as the Tingle Creek in 2007 and 2009 and the Victor Chandler Chase in 2010. He suffered a serious injury while racing in the rearranged Peterborough Chase at Newbury and was put down. He was a rather quirky character, although not at his best at Cheltenham, he was one of the best two-mile chasers of his generation.
Sire De Grugy was a French-bred, British-trained Selle Français racehorse who competed in National Hunt racing. He showed promise in his early career, winning the Dovecote Novices' Hurdle at Kempton Park Racecourse in 2011 and emerged as a top class performer with a win in the Celebration Chase in April 2013. In the 2013–14 National Hunt season he established himself as the leading two-mile steeplechaser in Britain, winning the Tingle Creek Chase, Desert Orchid Chase, Clarence House Chase and the Queen Mother Champion Chase. He continued to run in top-class two-mile steeplechases without fully recapturing his 2013–14 form, winning one race in each of the following three seasons including a second win in the Tingle Creek Chase, before being retired in December 2017.
Call Equiname was a British Thoroughbred racehorse who competed under National Hunt rules. In a racing career frequently interrupted by injury he raced twenty-one times in eight seasons, winning eleven races. Despite an undistinguished pedigree, he showed promise in his early career, winning the Kennel Gate Novices' Hurdle in 1995. He reached his peak in the spring of 1999 when he won the Victor Chandler Chase and the Queen Mother Champion Chase. He was retired from racing in January 2001.
Klairon Davis was a French-bred, Irish-trained Thoroughbred racehorse who competed under National Hunt rules. In a racing career which lasted from April 1993 and May 2001, he won twenty of his fifty-four races and was placed on sixteen occasions. After beginning in National Hunt Flat races he competed over hurdles winning the Punchestown Champion Novice Hurdle in 1994. In the following season he raced in novice chases and recorded major wins in the Dennys Gold Medal Chase, Arkle Novice Chase and Arkle Challenge Trophy. In 1996 he had his biggest success when taking the Queen Mother Champion Chase and followed up in the BMW Handicap Chase. He was never as good again, but won a second BMW Chase in 1997 and took the Normans Grove Chase in 1998, 1999 and 2001 before retiring at the age of twelve. During his career he had sustained rivalries with the leading Irish jumpers Sound Man and Merry Gale.
Deep Sensation was a British Thoroughbred racehorse who competed under National Hunt rules. He ran in six consecutive Cheltenham Festivals and is best known for his win in the 1993 Queen Mother Champion Chase. In his first three seasons he was campaigned in hurdle races, recording his most notable success in the 1990 Tote Gold Trophy. When switched to larger obstacles he was one of the leading novice steeplechasers of 1991/1992, winning the Lightning Novices' Chase and the Nottinghamshire Novices' Chase. He reached his peak in the following season, when he took the H & T Walker Gold Cup, the Queen Mother Champion Chase and the Melling Chase. He never won another major race but recorded two minor wins and was placed in several important chases over the next two years. He was retired from racing after a narrow defeat in the 1995 Melling Chase after winning thirteen of his forty-nine races and being placed on twenty-one occasions. He died in November 2003 at the age of eighteen.
Un de Sceaux is a French-bred AQPS racehorse who competed in National Hunt racing. After winning both his races in France he was transferred to the yard of trainer Willie Mullins in Ireland where he won two novice hurdles. In the 2013/14 National Hunt season he was undefeated in five races including the Red Mills Trial Hurdle in Ireland and both the Prix Hypothese and the Prix Leon Rambaud in France. When switched to steeplechases he recovered from a fall on his debut to win the Arkle Novice Chase, Arkle Challenge Trophy and Ryanair Novice Chase in the 2014/15 season. In 2015/16 he won the Clarence House Chase but was beaten by Sprinter Sacre when favourite for the Queen Mother Champion Chase. He began the 2016/17 season with a win in the Tingle Creek Chase and followed up with his second victory in the Clarence House Chase before taking the Ryanair Chase in March. In 2018 Un de Sceaux became the first horse to win three Clarence House chases but was disappointed at Cheltenham by Balko des Flos when attempting to regain his Ryanair crown. He finished the season on a high by winning the Devenish Chase at Fairyhouse before surprising his stablemate Douvan in the Punchestown Champion Chase, a race he won again in 2019. In the 2019/20 season he was beaten into second place by Defi Du Seuil in both the Tingle Creek Chase and the Clarence House Chase. In February 2020, while preparing for his sixth trip to the Cheltenham Festival, Un de Sceaux sustained a suspensory ligament injury and Mullins announced that the twelve-year-old would be retired to France. He had won 23 of his 34 starts, including ten Grade 1 victories.
Dodging Bullets is a British Thoroughbred racehorse, best known for his performances in National Hunt races. Bred by the leading jockey Frankie Dettori he had a flat racing career of limited importance, winning two minor races from nine starts as a three-year-old in 2011. He showed better form when switched to hurdles, winning the Sharp Novices' Hurdle in 2012. He proved even better when he began to compete in steeplechases, winning the November Novices' Chase and the Wayward Lad Novices' Chase in 2013. In the 2014/2015 National Hunt season he emerged as one of the best chasers in Britain, recording three consecutive Grade 1 wins in the Tingle Creek Chase, Clarence House Chase and Queen Mother Champion Chase.
Altior is an Irish-bred British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse who competed in National Hunt races. After winning one of his three National Hunt Flat races he was unbeaten in five hurdle races including the Supreme Novices' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. He then switched to two-mile steeplechases and remained unbeaten over the next three seasons to set a world record for a jumps horse of 19 consecutive wins. His unbroken run of victories included ten Grade 1 wins, four of them at the Cheltenham Festival. In all, he won 21 times from 26 starts. Trained by Nicky Henderson at the Seven Barrows yard near Lambourn, he was ridden in most of his races by Nico de Boinville. He was retired aged eleven in 2021.
Bryony Frost is an English National Hunt jockey from Buckfastleigh, Devon. In 2019 she became the first female jockey to win a Grade 1 race at the Cheltenham Festival.
Politologue is a French-bred racehorse who competed in National Hunt racing. After winning one race in his native country he was sent to race in England and won two Novice Hurdle races in the 2015/16 season. In the following season he began to compete in steeplechases and won three races including the Noel Novices' Chase. In his next campaign he emerged as a top-class chaser over two and two and a half miles as he recorded victories in the Haldon Gold Cup, Tingle Creek Chase, Desert Orchid Chase and Melling Chase. He won the 1965 Chase in November 2018 but failed to win again for eighteen months before gaining his biggest win in the 2020 Champion Chase. In December 2020 he won the Tingle Creek Chase for a second time. It was to be his final victory and he was retired in March 2022 after a further four starts.
Harry Skelton is a British jockey who competes in National Hunt racing. Skelton was the 2020–2021 British Champion Jump Jockey.
Sam Thomas is a retired Welsh National Hunt jockey who is now a horse trainer. He is best known for winning the 2008 Cheltenham Gold Cup with Denman.
