Arkle Challenge Trophy

Not to be confused with Irish Arkle Novice Chase, which is run at Leopardstown in late January or early February, the Arkle Challenge Trophy is a Grade 1 contest run over two miles on the Old Course at Cheltenham, where it is currently scheduled as the second race on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival, a.k.a. ‘Champion Day’, in March. The race was introduced to the Festival programme, in its current guise, in 1969 and commemorates the legendary Arkle, arguably the greatest steeplechaser of all time, who won the Cheltenham Gold Cup three years running, in 1964, 1965 and 1966.

Open to novice steeplechasers aged five years and upwards, the Arkle Challenge Trophy currently offers £200,000 in guaranteed prize money. As such, it is a notable, high-emd contest in its own right, but is often used as a stepping stone to the two-mile chasing championship, the Queen Mother Champion Chase, the following season and thereafter. Indeed, just since the turn of the twenty-first century, Moscow Flyer, Azertyuiop, Voy Por Ustedes, Sizing Europe, Sprinter Sacre, Altior and Put The Kettle On have all won both races.

Upper Lambourn trainer Nicky Henderson, who was responsible for Sprinter Sacre (2012) and Altior (2017), also saddled another subsequent winner of the Champion Chase, Remittance Man (1991), plus Travado (1993), Tiutchev (2000), Simonsig (2013), Shishkin (2021) and Jango Baie (2025) for a total of eight wins so far. Henderson is the leading trainer in the history of the Arkle Challenge Trophy and, with his Tirmph Hurdle runner-up Lulamba currently heading the betting for the 2026 renewal, looks to have bright prospects of invreasing his winning tally.

Maghull Novices’ Chase

The Maghull Novices’ Chase is a Grade 1 steeplechase run over 1 mile, 7 furlongs and 176 yards on the Mildmay Course at Aintree in early April. As the name suggests, the race is restricted to novice steeplechasers – that is, horses that start the season without a win over regulation fences – aged five years and upwards.

The Maghull Novices’ Chase was inaugurated in 1954 and is named after the nearby town of Maghull in Sefton, Merseyside. The race was promoted from Listed to Grade 2 status in 1991 and from Grade 2 to Grade 1 status in 1995. The field typically features horses that contested the two-mile novice steeplechasing championship race at the Cheltenham Festival, the Arkle Challenge Trophy. Shiskin, for example, won both races in 2021. Looking ahead to the 2023 renewal, which is due off at 3.00pm on Grand National Day, Saturday, April 9, the likes of Jonbon and Sir Gerhard – both Grade 1-winning novice hurdlers with winning point-to-point form – may well emerge as leading contenders in due course.

It is also worth noting that reigning champion trainer Paul Nicholls is the most successful handler in the history of the Maghull Novices’ Chase with seven winners. Nicholls saddled Flagship Uberalles (1999), Armaturk (2002), Le Roi Miguel (2003), Twist Magic (2007), Tataniano (2010), San Benedeto (2017) and Diego Du Charmil (2018). Connections of Monmiral have made no secret of the fact that the 5-year-old Saint Des Saints gelding was bought to go steeplechasing and he remains one to bear in mind. Other notable winners down the years include Night Nurse (1979), Pearlyman (1986), Well Chief (2004), Sprinter Sacre (2012) and Douvan (2016), to name but a handful.

Ruby Walsh

Ruby Walsh took the world of National Hunt racing by surprise when, immediately after winning the Punchestown Gold Cup on Kemboy in May, 2019, he announced his retirement. In his 24-year career, Walsh rode over 2,500 winners, including 59 at the Cheltenham Festival – 23 ahead of his nearest pursuer, Barry Geraghty – and for several years had the pick of rides from Paul Nicholls and Willie Mullins, both champion trainers on their respective sides of the Irish Sea. Indeed, Willie Mullins, who has been Irish Champion National Hunt Trainer every season since 2007/08, described Walsh as ‘the daddy of them all’.

In fact, it was for County Carlow-based handler that Walsh rode his first Cheltenham Festival winner, Alexander Banquet in the Champion Bumper, as an 18-year-old amateur rider in 1998. He turned professional at the start of the following season and, in the next 18 years, was leading jockey at the Cheltenham Festival 11 times, including five consecutive years between 2013 and 2017. In 2009, Walsh set a record by riding seven winners over the four days and equalled that record in 2016, by which time he had left his role as stable jockey to Paul Nicholls after over a decade commuting between Britain and Ireland.

Of the four main ‘championship’ races run at the Cheltenham Festival, Walsh won the Cheltenham Gold Cup twice on Kauto Star, trained by Nicholls, the Champion Hurdle four times, on Hurricane Fly (twice), Faugheen and Annie Power, all trained by Mullins, the Queen Mother Champion Chase three times, on Azertyuiop and Master Minded (twice), both trained by Nicholls, and the Stayers’ Hurdle five times on Big Buck’s (four times), trained by Nicholls, and Nichols Canyon, trained by Mullins. Elsewhere on the Festival programme, he also won the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle eight times on Quevega (six times), Vroum Vroum Mag and Benie Des Dieux.

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