Inaugurated 1963 Sponsor Caspian Caviar Distance 2m 5f (4,225 metres) | Race type Chase | |
Location Cheltenham RacecourseCheltenham, England | ||
The December Gold Cup (run since 2014 as the Caspian Caviar Gold Cup) is a Grade 3 National Hunt chase in Great Britain which is open to horses aged four years or older. It is run on the New Course at Cheltenham over a distance of about 2 miles and 5 furlongs (4,225 metres), and during its running there are seventeen fences to be jumped. It is a handicap race, and it is scheduled to take place each year in December.
Contents
The event was first run in 1963. It was originally sponsored by Massey Ferguson and known as the Massey Ferguson Gold Cup. The race continued with this title until 1980, but since then it has had various sponsors and consequently several title changes. The 2005 running was named the Robin Cook Memorial Gold Cup. This was in memory of Robin Cook (1946–2005), a former Foreign Secretary who was a keen racing enthusiast. Boylesports supported the race from 2006 to 2009 as the Boylesports.com Gold Cup. The 2010 race was run as the Vote A P Gold Cup as part of a successful campaign to encourage racegoers to vote for Tony McCoy in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award. In 2011 the racehorse owner Andy Stewart bgean backing the race to promote the Spinal Research charity, following a spinal injury suffered by his son Paul in 2008. The race was run as the Spinal Research The Atlantic 4 Gold Cup in 2011, the Paul Stewart IronSpine Charity Challenge Gold Cup in 2012 and was then named the Stewart Family Thank You Gold Cup in 2013. The race became known as the Caspian Caviar Gold Cup in 2014. The race has become commonly known in the racing media as the December Gold Cup.
The race is often contested by horses which ran previously in the BetVictor Gold Cup (also formerly known by other titles). Three have won both races in the same season – Pegwell Bay, Senor El Betrutti and Exotic Dancer.
Records
Most successful horse (2 wins) :
Leading jockey (3 wins):
Leading trainer (4 wins):
Winners
1 The 1967 running was abandoned due to a foot-and-mouth disease epidemic.
2 The race was cancelled in 1976 because of frost.
3 It was abandoned in both 1981 and 1990 because of snow.
4 The 1995 and 2001 races were cancelled because of frost.
5 The 2003 edition was run on Cheltenham's Old Course over 2 miles and 4½ furlongs.
6 It was abandoned in 2008 due to waterlogging.