Gold Cup
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The Gold Cup, the chasing crown, is a grade 1 race over 3 miles 2 furlongs and 70 yards and 22 fences of the New Course and is open to 5-year-olds and above. Although the first race at Cheltenham known as the Gold Cup was in July 1819, it was a flat race over 3 miles on the Cleeve Hill course and was won by Spectre owned by Mr Bodenham, and the race did continue for a number of years afterwards. However, it has no real connection with the present day pinnacle of National Hunt racing which was first contested on 12th March 1924 over 3 miles 3 furlongs. The race was not staged in 1931 due to frost, nor in 1937 due to flooding, and the Second World War prevented the race being held in both 1943 and 1944. |
| Early history:- The inaugural running of the Gold Cup was on 12th March 1924 over 3 miles 3 furlongs and was won by Red Splash (5/1) owned by Major Humphrey Wyndham, trained by Fred Withington and ridden by Dick Rees, beating Conjuror II (7/1) and Gerald L (5/1). | |
| Gold Cup 2005 | Grade 1 | 3 miles 2 1/2 furlongs | ||
| Pos. | Horse | Jockey | Trainer | Owner |
| 1 | KICKING KING | Barry Geraghty | Tom Taaffe (Ire) | Mr Conor Clarkson 4/1 fav |
| 2 | TAKE THE STAND | Tony Dobbin | Peter Bowen | The Courters 25/1 |
| 3 | SIR REMBRANDT | Andrew Thornton | Robert Alner | Mr A Hordle 12/1 |
| 4 | ROYAL AUCLAIR | Christian Williams | Paul Nicholls | Mr Clive D Smith 40/1 |
| 5 | GREY ABBEY | Graham Lee | Howard Johnson | Roper Family, Norman Furness 15/2 |
| 6 | STRONG FLOW | Ruby Walsh | Paul Nicholls | Mr B C Marshall 5/1 |
| 7 | CELESTIAL GOLD | Timmy Murphy | Martin Pipe | The Johnson Family 9/2 |
| 8 | BALLYCASSIDY | Seamus Durack | Peter Bowen | Roddy Owen, Paul Fullagar 80/1 |
| 9 | THEREALBANDIT | Tony McCoy | Martin Pipe | The Johnson Family 16/1 |
| 10 | ASTONVILLE | Tom Scudamore | Michael Scudamore | Mrs C Morgan 500/1 |
| 11 | PIZARRO | Davy Russell | Eddy O'Grady (Ire) | Mr Edward Wallace 14/1 |
| 12 | TIUTCHEV | Robert Thornton | Martin Pipe | The Liars Poker Partnership 50/1 |
| 13 | VENN OTTERY | Jamie Moore | Martin Pipe | Mr O J Carter 200/1 |
| 14 | TRUCKERS TAVERN | Brian Harding | Ferdy Murphy | Mrs M B Scholey 100/1 |
| 15 | BEEF OR SALMON | Paul Carberry | Michael Hourigan (Ire) | Mr B J Craig 5/1 |
| Over round 115% | ||||
| This race was held on Friday 18th March 2005 when Kicking King beat Take The Stand and Sir Rembrandt by 5 lengths and 8 lengths | ||||