The oldest race run at the Cheltenham Festival is Grand Annual Challenge Cup Handicap Chase or, more correctly, the Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Challenge Cup Handicap Chase, as the race has been known since 2005.
The late Major John ‘Johnny’ Henderson, father of leading National Hunt trainer Nicky Henderson, was an influential figure in the horseracing world. In 1963, he brought together a group of investors to buy Cheltenham racecourse for £240,000, thereby preventing it from being taken over by property developers. The following year, he was instrumental in the formation of Racecourse Holdings Trust (now Jockey Club Racecourses). Henderson Snr. died in December, 2003, aged 83 and, two years later, his name was added to the race title in recognition of his contribution to safeguarding Cheltenham.
Nowadays, the Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Challenge Cup Handicap Chase is run over a distance of about 2 miles, or 1 mile, 7 fulongs and 199 yards to be precise, on the New Course at Cheltenham on the second day of the Cheltenham Festival. However, the inaugural Grand Annual Chase was run on April 4, 1834 – five years before the first ‘official’ running of the Grand National –
in the vicinity of Andoversford, east of Cheltenham. Thus, the Grand Annual Chase is not only the oldest race run at the Cheltenham Festival, but also the oldest surviving race in the British National Hunt calendar.
The Grand Annual Chase was run over various courses and distances – in 1835, for example, a distance ‘upwards of four miles’ – in the locality until 1843 and, after a four-year hiatus, was transferred to Noverton, adjoining Prestbury Park. Between 1861 and 1866, the race was run at Southam, Warwickshire and, thereafter, not run at all until the early twentieth century; it finally returned, permanently, to Cheltenham in 1913.
As the name suggests, the Ascot Chase is a Grade 1 steeplechase run over 2 miles, 5 furlongs and 8 yards at Ascot in February. Inaugurated, as the Comet Chase, in 1995, the race was orginally run over a distance of 2 miles, 3 furlongs and 110 yards, but has been lengthened, shortened and lengthened again at various points in its history. The 2005 and 2006 renewals – staged at Lingfield Park during the multi-million pound redevelopment of Ascot – were contested over 2 miles, 4 furlongs and 110 yards. Back at Ascot, on the partially reconstructed National Hunt course, in 2007, the distance was shortened to 2 miles 2 furlongs and 175 yards before being lengthened to the current yardage the following year.
Worth £150,000 in guaranteed in prize money, the Ascot Chase has the distinction of being the most valuable steeplechase run at Ascot. It is also the third, and final, National Hunt race of the season at the Berkshire course and, more importantly, the final Grade 1 race, of any description, before the Cheltenham Festival. The intermediate distance is ideally suited to top-level horses who lack the speed for two miles and the stamina for three. That said, the indomitable Kauto Star – a Grade 1 winner at two miles, three miles and three-and-a-quarter miles – demonstrated his versatility with an easy 8-length victory in 2008.
A total of four horses – Tiutchev (2001, 2003), Monet’s Garden (2007, 2010), Riverside Theatre (2011, 2012) and Cue Card (2013, 2017) – have won the Ascot Chase. Paul Nicholls, trainer of Kauto Star, also saddled Rockforce (2000) Silviniaco Conti (2016) and Cyrname (2019) to victory and, alongside Martin Pipe, is jointly the most successful trainer in the history of the race.
The 2023 renewal of the Ascot Chase is scheduled for Saturday, February 18. Ante-post prices are not yet available, but favourites have an excellent recent record, winning six of the last 10 renewals.
Bargoed-born David Probert, a graduate of the British Racing School in Newmarket, had his first ride in public on Tiny Tim, trained by Andrew Balding, in a lowly banded stakes race at Lingfield on December 13, 2006. He rode his first winner, Mountain Pass, trained by Bernard Llewellyn, in an equally woeful selling stakes race at Wolverhampton nearly a year later. However, from such humble beginnings, under the mentorship of former champion trainer Ian Balding, he made rapid progress, such that in 2008 he shared the apprentice jockeys’ championship with fellow Kingsclere apprentice William Buick.
Thereafter, it would be fair to say that Probert has enjoyed a successful career without hitting the heights that, at one point, seemed likely. In recent seasons, Andrew Balding has tended to entrust his ‘big guns’ to three-time champion jockey Oisin Murphy, such that, more often than not, Probert has found himself playing second fiddle to his younger rival. Of course, Murphy is currently banned until February, 2023, so that dynamic may well change but, for now, Probert is still without a Group 1 winner to his name.
Nevertheless, Probert celebrated 1,000 winners on British soil when riding Tronada, trained by Alan King, to victory at Lingfield on June 8, 2020. In 2021, he enjoyed far and away the most successful season of his career so far, with 169 winners, including a 257/1 five-timer at his home course, Ffos Las, on August 11, and over £2 million in prize money for the first time. Between May 1 and October 16, he rode 93 winners, thereby finishing fourth in the Flat Jockeys’ Championship. Probert continued in excellent form over the winter and was crowned champion all-weather jockey at Newcastle on Good Friday, 2022.
At the time of writing, Brian Hughes has just won the British Jump Jockeys’ Championship for the second time. Between May 1, 2021 and April 23, 2022, Hughes rode 204 winners, 99 more than his nearest rival, Sam Twiston-Davies. In so doing, he became just the fourth National Hunt jockey in history, after Peter Scudamore, Sir Anthony McCoy and Richard Johnson, to ride 200 winners in a season. Reflecting on his second jockeys’ title, Hughes said, ‘Having lost the championship [to Harry Skelton] last year, to win it back, by a considerable margin and with 200 winners, it will mean the most.’
Of course, Hughes won his first jockeys’ title in 2019/20, with 141 winners, thereby becoming the first jockey based in the North of England to do so since Jonjo O’Neill in 1980. Indeed, O’Neill also held the record for the most winners in a season by a northern jump jockey, 149, which he set in 1978. However, Hughes broke that record as early as February 7, 2022, courtesy of an 83/1 four-timer at Carlisle, which took his seasonal tally to 150. Fittingly, three of his winners that day were saddled by Cholmondeley trainer Donald McCain, to whom Hughes was appointed first-choice jockey at the start of the 2018/19 season.
Born in County Armagh in Northern Ireland, Hughes, 36, became conditional jockey to Howard Johnston in 2005/06 but, by his own admission, became ‘a bit disillusioned’ and sought opportunities elsewhere. Nevertheless, he remained in the North of England and formed successful partnerships, first with County Durham trainer John Wade and subsequently with Donald McCain, Nicky Richards, Brian Ellison, James Ewart and others, that would ultimately take him to the top of his profession.