Cheltenham Gold Cup was responsible for all of the first five horses to finish – Bregawn, Captain John, Wayward Lad, Silver Buck and Ashley House. The 1986 winner, Dawn Run, is the only horse to have ever won both this race and the leading hurdle event, the Champion Hurdle. One of the most popular horses to win the Gold Cup was Desert Orchid, a grey who won the event in 1989. The following year's running was won by Norton's Coin, whose starting price of 100/1 represents the race's longest ever winning price. The entire Cheltenham Festival was cancelled in 2001 because of an
Mr Mulligan (horse) grapefruit-sized hematoma on his back which was slow to heal and put the rest of his season in doubt. The horse spent three weeks in the care of Mary Bromiley, an equine physiotherapist, before returning to Chance to be prepared for the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Twelve days before the race, the horse was sent to Newbury racecourse for an exercise gallop, where, according to Chance, he "worked appallingly, badly even for him." A better piece of work a week later convinced the trainer to send him to Cheltenham. Mr Mulligan's erratic performances and disrupted preparation saw him sent off a