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
Koko (horse) 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 The Derby winner Persimmon and a half-sister to Fiona, an influential broodmare whose descendants included Native Dancer. Koko was owned