With which horses did Fred Winter win the Cheltenham Gold Cup?

The late Frederick ‘Fred’ Winter, who died on April 5, 2004, was a force majeure in National Hunt racing for three decades, first as a jockey, and latterly as a trainer. Among his many other acccolades, Winter remains the only man to have won the Champion Hurdle, the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Grand National as both jockey and trainer.

As far as the Cheltenham Gold Cup is concerned, Winter has three winners to his name, two as a jockey and one as a trainer. As a jockey, he opened his account on Saffron Tartan, trained by Don Butchers, who justified favouritism in 1961, beating his nearest market rival, Pas Seul, trained by Bob Turnell and ridden by Dave Dick by a length and a half. The following year, Winter rode Mandarin, trained by Fulke Walwyn, who had finished third in 1961, but went two places better when beating dual Champion Chase winner Fortria, trained by Tom Dreaper and ridden by Pat Taaffe, by a length.

Winter retired from race riding in 1964 and, rather reluctantly, turned his hand to training. Remarkably, though, he saddled the winner of the Grand National, in each of his first two seasons, Jay Trump in 1965 and Anglo in 1966. It was not until 1977/78, the season in which he would win the seventh of his eight trainers’ titles, that Winter would win his one and only Cheltenham Gold Cup with Midnight Court, ridden by his stable jockey John Francome.