Cheltenham Gold Cup chasers as Arkle, Best Mate, Golden Miller, Kauto Star and Mill House. The Gold Cup is the most valuable non-handicap chase in Britain, and in 2014 it offered a total prize fund of £550,000. The first horse race known as the Cheltenham Gold Cup took place in July 1819. It was a flat race, and it was contested over 3 miles on Cleeve Hill, which overlooks the present venue. The inaugural winner, Spectre, won a prize of 100 guineas for his owner Mr Bodenham. The Cheltenham Gold Cup was first run as a jumps race on 12 March 1924. The
Barton (horse) 2002/2003 National Hunt season he was considered a serious contender for the Cheltenham Gold Cup but was well beaten in all of his four races. In November 2003 he showed signs of a return when he finished second by a neck to his stable companion Turgeonev when carrying top weight of 165 pounds in a handicap chase at Wetherby, but he never ran again. Barton was euthanised in June 2004 in the same week as fellow Cheltenham Festival winner La Landiere. Barton (horse) Barton (19 February 1993 – 2004) was a British racehorse of Thoroughbred and Anglo-Arabian ancestry who competed