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
Koko (horse) of Champions", based on the Timeform rating system, John Randall and Tony Morris rated Koko a "inferior" Gold Cup winner. Koko (horse) Koko (foaled 1918) was an Irish racehorse who won the 1926 Cheltenham Gold Cup. He finished third in the race in 1928 when odds-on favourite and fell in 1929. He also ran twice without success in the Grand National. Koko was a bay gelding bred in Ireland. He was sired by Santoi a top-class flat stayer who won the Ascot Gold Cup in 1901 before becoming a leading National Hunt sire. Koko's dan Persister was a daughter of