The Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham’s Trials Day fixture this Saturday is often billed as a Gold Cup prep race ahead of the big Festival race. But is this true and just how many horses have managed to win both races in the same season?
The Last Cotswold Chase Winner To Win The Cheltenham Gold Cup Was Looks Like Trouble In 2000
Horse racing stats lovers will need to go back to 2000 to find the last horse to win both the Cotswold Chase and the Cheltenham Gold Cup in the same season.
Step forward – LOOKS LIKE TROUBLE.
This Noel Chance-trained 8 year-old (at the time) used the 2000 Cotswold Chase as his prep outing before following up in the Cheltenham Gold Cup just a few months later. But he remains the only one in the last 23 years.
Looks Like Trouble was ridden by Norman Williamson in the Cotswold Chase, but Richard Johnson took over in the Gold Cup (watch below), with Williamson instead riding the Venetia Williams-trained outsider Lake Kariba.
His Cotswold Chase success saw him beat a horse called Go Ballistic, who was probably doing just that as the winning distance was a massive 30-lengths.
The double winner remains the last horse to win both the Cotswold Chase and the Gold Cup in the same season – with this run now stretching 23 years and counting.
While 15 of the last 20 Cotswold Chase winner have contested the Gold Cup that term, with 14 finishing 8th or better – just no winners.
Looks Like Trouble also ran in the 2002 Gold Cup but was a well-beaten 13th that day to the three-time winner of the race Best Mate.
The Noel Chance horse, however, ended his career winning three times over fences at Prestbury Park from just four starts.
He retired in 2003.
Master Oats The Only Other Cotswold Chase/Gold Cup Double Winner (in the same season)
Prior to the Looks Like Trouble double, the only other horse to win both races was the Kim Bailey-trained MASTER OATS in 1995.
The horse was aged 9 at the time and landed both the Cotswold Chase and the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1995 and these two successes turned out to him his final wins.
Master Oats raced six more times since winning the 1995 Gold Cup, but failed to get his head in front again and was retired in 1997 after running a gallant fifth in the Grand National behind Lord Gyllene. Which was the year the race was delayed till Monday after a bomb scare at Aintree.
The 1995 Gold Cup win for Master Oats also provided trainer Kim Bailey with a Cheltenham Festival to remember – having also won the Champions Hurdle that year with Alderbrook, who Norman Williamson rode too.
Therefore, since the Cotswold Chase was first run in 1980, Master Oats and Looks Like Trouble remain the only two winners to follow-up in the Gold Cup later that season.
Cotswold Chase 2024: Time, Date and Prize Money
📅Time/Date: 1:50pm (Sat 27th January 2024)
🏇Racecourse: Cheltenham
💰 Purse/Winner: £70,338
📺 TV: ITV / Racing TV
See More Business The Only Other Horse To Win Both Races (just not in the same campaign)
Another horse that deserves a mention is the Paul Nicholls-trained See More Business as he did win both the Cotswold Chase and the Gold Cup – just not in the same campaigns.
His Cotswold Chase wins came in 1998 and 2001, with his Cheltenham Gold Cup success sandwiched in between in 1999.
Many Clouds Won The 2015 Cotswold Chase Before Winning The Grand National
Many Clouds won the 2015 Cotswold Chase under jockey Leighton Aspell and even though he could only manage 6th in the Gold Cup that season, he made amends in a big way – by winning that season’s Aintree Grand National.
The Oliver Sherwood runner also won another Cotswold Chase in 2017, in a gutsy battle with Thistlecrack – but that was his last outing as he sadly collapsed and died soon after the finish.
Cotswold Chase Odds 2024
See below the latest Cotswold Chase betting from BetMGM. Where you can also get a £40 free bet for staking £10.
- Royale Pagaille 11/4
- Stay Away Fay 3/1
- The Real Whacker 4/1
- Datsalrightgino 11/2
- Ahoy Senor 11/2
- Capodanno 13/2
Note: Odds are subject to change
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Cotswold Chase Winners Since 2004
- 2023 – Ahoy Senor (13/2)
- 2022 – Chantry House (5/6 fav)
- 2021 – Native River (13/2)
- 2020 – Santini (13/8 fav)
- 2019 – Frodon (9/4)
- 2018 – Definitly Red (7/1)
- 2017 – Many Clouds (8/1)
- 2016 – Smad Place (9/2)
- 2015 – Many Clouds (4/1)
- 2014 – The Giant Bolster (6/1)
- 2013 – Cape Tribulation (7/1)
- 2012 – Midnight Chase (11/2)
- 2011 – Neptune Collonges (11/2)
- 2010 – Taranis (16/1)
- 2009 – Joe Lively (11/1)
- 2008 – Knowhere (16/1)
- 2007 – Exotic Dancer (6/1)
- 2006 – See You Sometime (18/1)
- 2005 – Grey Abbey (10/3)
- 2004 – Jair Du Cochet (11/4)
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