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) 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