Paddy Power Cotswold Chase: Facts, figures, trivia and stats

The Paddy Power Cotswold Chase is a trial for the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup.

It was first run in 1980 as the Tote Double Chase with a total prize fund of £5,215. The race was abandoned in 1987, 1992 (frost), 1996 (frost and snow), 2006 (frost - a replacement was run at Wincanton the following Thursday) and 2021 (waterlogged – a replacement was run at Sandown Park the following Saturday).

The race held Grade Two status for the first time in 1999 and it is the most valuable race run on Festival Trials Day with a record total prize fund of £120,000 in 2022.

The highest number of runners to line up was 10 (2013), while three took part in 1982 and 1988. Five have been declared for Saturday's renewal.

See More Business (1998 & 2001) and Many Clouds (2015 & 2017) have been the two dual winners.

The most successful outright owners are John Hales (1997 One Man & 2011 Neptune Collonges) and the late Trevor Hemmings (2015 & 2017 Many Clouds) with two wins each. Paul Barber owned dual winner See More Business (1998 and 2011) in partnerships with John Keighley and Sir Robert Ogden respectively. The last-named also saw his colours carried to victory by Exotic Dancer (2007).

Paul Nicholls has recorded five victories, thanks to See More Business (1998 & 2001), Taranis (2010), Neptune Collonges (2011) and Frodon (2019). He runs Simply The Betts this weekend.

Sir AP McCoy and Richard Johnson are the most successful riders with three triumphs reach. McCoy scored on Cyfor Malta (1999), Exotic Dancer (2007) and Neptune Collonges (2011), with Johnson successful on Behrajan (2003), Smad Place (2016) and Native River (2021).

The only amateur rider to succeed has been Jim Wilson, who partnered Little Owl in 1981. The pair followed up in the Cheltenham Gold Cup seven weeks later.

Two mares have been successful – Lesley Ann (1982) and Dubacilla (1994).

Four greys have won – One Man (1997), Grey Abbey (2005), Neptune Collonges (2011) and Smad Place (2016).

The race was staged at Wincanton in 2006 after Cheltenham could not race because of frost. The Seamus Mullins-trained See You Sometime was sent off the 18-1 outsider of five - the longest-priced winner. The shortest-priced winner was One Man, who obliged at odds of 2-5 in 1997.

However, favourites have gained success in just eight of the 39 runnings (just over 20 per cent). The most recent market leader to prevail - and the only one this century - was Santini in 2020.

IRELAND (1): Rince Ri (2002)

FRANCE (1): Jair Du Cochet (2004)

See More Business (2001), Grey Abbey (2005), See You Sometime (2006) and Native River (2021), are the four oldest winners of the Cotswold Chase - all were aged 11.

At the other end of the spectrum, six-year-old Cyfor Malta was the youngest horse to score in 1999.

A breakdown of the winners by age is as follows:

6yo - 1

7yo - 8

8yo - 11

9yo - 10

10yo - 5

11yo - 4

6m 24.20s, set by One Man in 1997.

Four Paddy Power Cotswold Chase winners have subsequently gone on to glory in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

The Peter Easterby-trained Little Owl won the Cotswold Chase in 1981 before taking chasing’s Blue Riband in the same year. Master Oats achieved the same feat for trainer Kim Bailey in 1995.

See More Business, successful in the 1998 Cotswold Chase and then again in 2001, captured the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1999, while Looks Like Trouble achieved the double in 2000 for trainer Noel Chance.

Native River, successful in the rearranged contest at Sandown Park in 2021, won the Cheltenham Gold Cup three years previously in 2018.

Dawn Run, who won one of the most memorable renewals of the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1986, ran in the Cotswold Chase prior to her famous victory.

Starting the 4-9 favourite, the great mare looked to be well in command when unseating her rider Tony Mullins at the 16th fence. She was remounted to finish fourth behind Misty Spirit.

She returned to Cheltenham in March to land chasing’s championship event and remains the only horse to win both the Champion Hurdle and the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Three Paddy Power Cotswold Chase winners have gone on to win the Randox Grand National, the most recent being the Oliver Sherwood-trained Many Clouds in 2015.

West Tip (1985) and Neptune Collonges (2011) scored at Aintree the year after their Cheltenham triumphs.