2016 Cheltenham Gold Cup 2016 Cheltenham Gold Cup The 2016 Cheltenham Gold Cup (known as the Timico Gold Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 88th annual running of the Cheltenham Gold Cup horse race and was held at Cheltenham Racecourse on Friday 18 March 2016. The race was won by the 9 to 4 favourite, Don Cossack, owned by Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary's Gigginstown House Stud, trained by Gordon Elliott in Ireland, and ridden by Bryan Cooper. The race gave Elliott and Cooper a first victory in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Don Cossack won by 4½ lengths from Djakadam, with Don Poli a further
Cheltenham Gold Cup race was covered by Pathe News. A prize of £685 was awarded to the owner of the winning horse. The event originally took place on what is now the "Old Course" at Cheltenham. In its early years it was overshadowed at the Festival by another race, the National Hunt Chase and was worth less in prize money than the County Handicap Hurdle which had a purse of £1,000. The Gold Cup was abandoned in 1931 (because of frost) and 1937 (flooding), but the five intervening years saw the emergence of the most successful horse in the event's history. All five