Foxhunter Chase Challenge Cup18 Mar 1999: Ben Pollock on Castle Mane (R) and Philip Fenton on Elegant Lord in action during the Christie's Foxhunter Chase Challenge Cup at the Cheltenham Festival in Gloucestershire, England. (Mike Hewitt /Allsport)

The Foxhunter Chase Challenge Cup represents the culmination of the Hunter Chase season.

The Foxhunter Chase Challenge Cup is one of the oldest races to be run at the Cheltenham Festival, and was first run in 1904 when Mr J Widger rode his own horse, Palmy Boy, to victory. The race is a class B chase run over the same course and distance as the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

The Foxhunter Chase Challenge Cup is open to horses aged five and older who have fulfilled a set of qualifying criteria related to experience in foxhunter chases. Horses race a distance of 3 miles 2½ furlongs and the top three share the richest purse in foxhunter chase racing.

Foxhunter Chase Challenge Cup Betting

Age: Four of the last five winners of the Foxhunter Chase have been 9-year-olds. 2009 winner Cappa Bleu won the race at the age of 6, becoming the third horse this age to win the race in the last five decades.
Odds: Winners of the race have been spread across a wide price margin, with the last five winners pricing between 7/2 and 33/1. The antepost favourite has won once and placed once during this period.
Jockey: This race is run by amateur jockeys, with none of these claiming more than one win in the last five years.
Trainer: Smaller stables have been known to score in the Foxhunter Chase Challenge Cup, with no trainer claiming multiple wins in recent years.
Foxhunter Chase Challenge Cup Tip: It's tempting to lay the favourite in this race, however, punters should keep in mind that over the entire history of the race favourites have won 1 in 3 races, and laying the market favourite is therefore unlikely to yield a long term profit. It is therefore worth backing the favourite and placing a spread of each-way bets on horses priced in the 7/2 to 20/1 margin.

Foxhunter Chase Challenge Cup Winners

Six horses have won the Foxhunter Chase Challenge Cup on two occasions, with no horse going on to claim three victories in the race. Most recently Double Silk, Fantus and Earthmover have all achieved two wins in the race.

The Foxhunter Chase Challenge Cup is regarded as the 'Gold Cup' for amateur jockeys. The race is particularly notable for producing female jockey winners, including the first female race winner at the Cheltenham Festival – Caroline Beasley on Eliogarty in 1983. Since then four other female jockeys have gone on to win the race.

Phil Nicholls has been the most successful trainer of Foxhunter Chase Challenge Cup winners since the turn of the millennium with two of his horses winning the event.

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