2005 Cheltenham Gold Cup 2005 Cheltenham Gold Cup The 2005 Cheltenham Gold Cup was a horse race which took place at Cheltenham on Friday 18 March 2005. It was the 77th running of the Cheltenham Gold Cup, and it was won by the pre-race favourite Kicking King. The winner was ridden by Barry Geraghty and trained by Tom Taaffe. Kicking King was the first winner of the Gold Cup to be trained in Ireland since Imperial Call in 1996. The three-time winner Best Mate was withdrawn from the race a week earlier after bursting a blood vessel. A fourth day was added to the
Horse racing in Scotland Horse racing in Scotland Horseracing in Scotland is a popular spectator sport, with a history dating back over 900 years. There are currently five operating racecourses in Scotland - one exclusively for flat racing, two exclusively for jump racing and two mixed. Between them they held one hundred and three race meetings in 2014. The main National Hunt meeting held is the Scottish Grand National meeting at Ayr each April, and the main Flat meeting is the Ayr Gold Cup Festival (historically known as the Western Meeting), at the same course each September. Horseracing first flourished in the country during