Which was the last British-trained horse to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup?

In recent years, the ‘Blue Riband’ event of the Cheltenham Festival, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, has been dominated by horses trained in Ireland. Indeed, in the last decade or so, Irish dominance has extended to the Festival as a whole. Since the traditional rivalry between British and Irish trainers became officially titled ‘The Prestbury Cup’ in 2014, the home team has been outscored 8-2, with all eight wins for the Irish coming in the last nine years, including by a record 23-5 margin in 2021.

At the 2024 Cheltenham Festival, Irish trainers won 18 of the 27 races across the four days (the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase was abandoned due to waterlogging), including 12 of the 14 highest-class, Grade 1 races.County Carlow trainer Willie Mullins cemented his position as the most successful trainer in Festival and made history by becoming the first person to saddle a century of winners, courtesy of Jasmin De Vaux in the Weatherbys Champion Bumper on the Wednesday.

Mullins’ eight Grade 1 winners for the week in 2024 included Galopin Des Champs, who justified favouritism in the Cheltenham God Cup, for the second year running, with a convincing three-and-a-half-length victory over Gerri Colombe. On the Gold Cup roll of honour, Galopin Des Champs is preceded by two winners trained in County Waterford by Henry De Bromhead, A Plus Tard in 2022 and Minella Indo in 2021 and, before that, another dual winner for Mullins, Al Boum Photo, in 2020 and 2019. Thus, the last British-trained horse to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup was Native River, saddled by Colin Tizzard, in 2018.