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
Gordon Elliott (racehorse trainer) first winner at the Cheltenham Festival as a trainer was Chicago Grey in the prestigious National Hunt Chase Challenge Cup in 2011. He won the 2016 Cheltenham Gold Cup for the first time with Don Cossack. In the 2017 Cheltenham Festival he finished as the top trainer for the first time with six wins. It was the same number of wins as Willie Mullins but Elliott had one more second place than Mullins. In the 2017 Grand National Elliott trained Cause of Causes which came second. Elliott finished the 2016/17 season in second place to Mullins in the Irish national