Last Ran: 19th March 2010

The Cheltenham Gold Cup is part of Cheltenham racecourse festival held every year in March.

It is a Grade 1 National Hunt race for five-year-olds and above, the horses run a distance of 3 miles 2½ furlongs on the new course at Cheltenham Racecourse and are faced with twenty two challenging fences.

The race is very popular with spectators and punters alike and the stands are always full to capacity to watch this race as it's the championship for staying chasers in the national hunt season.

As with many of the top races around the world like the Epsom Derby, lightly raced horses perform well here as the best horses are kept wrapped in cotton-wool and prepared at home for the big race. Therefore try to look for horses that have had fourteen or less races.

Also as this is a real stamina test with a stiff uphill finish, look for horses with form over three plus miles. Anything that's only just stayed three miles before will almost certainly not be good enough to win this event.

Perhaps one of the more famous horses to win there is Best Mate who won in 2002, 2003, 2004. The record however goes to a horse called Golden Miller who won this race five times from 1932.

Key Trends for the Cheltenham Gold Cup

• No horse older than ten has won here since 1969
• Twenty out of twenty two winners finished either fourth or better in their previous race
• Eight of the past nine winners were rated 166+

• Winter Derby (20th March 2010)
• UAE Derby (27th March 2010)
• Dubai Golden Shaheen (27th March 2010)
• Dubai Sheema Classic (27th March 2010)
• Dubai Duty Free Stakes (27th March 2010)