Who is the most successful trainer in the history of the Cheltenham Gold Cup?

By the time this article goes to press, it may well be that, in addition to his other extraordinary achievements at the Cheltenham Festival, Willie Mullins has become, jointly, the most successful trainer in the history of the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Remarkably, prior to 2019, Mullins had saddled six second-place finishers in the ‘Blue Riband’ event, but never the winner. However, he has set the record straight in recent years, winning four of the last six renewals, with Al Boum Photo in 2019 and 2020 and Galopin Des Champs 2023 and 2024. Indeed, at the time of writing, the latter is trading at 4/7 or shorter for the 2025 renewal of the Cheltenham Gold Cup, so it is difficult to argue that a share of the record is not within Mullins’ grasp.

For the time being, though, the most successful trainer in the history of the Cheltenham Gold Cup remains the late Thomas ‘Tom’ Dreaper, who retired from the training ranks in 1971 and died four years later. Dreaper will, of course, always be best remembered as the trainer of Arkle, arguably the greatest steeplechaser of all time, who completed a notable hat-trick in the Gold Cup in 1964, 1965 and 1966, winning by an aggregrate of 55 lengths. However, by that stage had already won the Cheltenham Gold Cup with the former Irish Grand National winner, Prince Regent, in 1946 and would subsequently do so again, with Fort Leney in 1968, for five wins altogether.