6 Facts from Cheltenham Festival 2020

Cheltenham Festival is one of the most exciting weeks in jumps racing with 28 races taking place over the four days that include some of the best racehorses, trainers and jockeys.

Here are 6 interesting facts from the 2020 festival:-

  1. Al Boum Photo won the Cheltenham Festival Gold Cup for the 2nd year in a row. The first horse since the great, Best Mate to win the title back-to-back.
  2. The leading jockey of the Festival was Al Boum Photo’s jockey, Paul Townend – who during the 4 day festival rode 5 winners, 2 second places and 3 third places. Barry Geraghty also won 5 races and 1 third.
  3. The leading trainer for the festival was Willie Mullins (IRE) who has 7 first places, 7 second places and 6 third placed horses with Gordon Elliot (IRE) training 7 first places, 7 second places and 4 third placed horses and Nicky Henderson with 4 first places, 1 second place and 1 third place.
  4. The final tally means that during the festival there were 16 Irish horses that won, 11 Great Britain horses that won and 1 French horse that won races.
  5. J P Mc Manus was the leading owner with 7 first placed horses, 1 second place and 1 third place.
  6. The Mullins- Townend combination dominated day 4 of the festival with Mullins training 4 wins and two 2nd places out of the 6 races on the card.

After winning the Gold Cup for the second time – winning Jockey Paul Townend said “It’s amazing for me, there was no added pressure from Willie, that was the most important thing. Riding for Willie means you have better chances, t least I finished the week well! This is the main stage, this is the one you want, the icing on the cake. I suppose last year was completely surreal. Last year we snuck under the radar a bit, whereas this year all eyes were on us. It hasn’t really sunk in yet. I thought I’d never get a feeling like last year again, but this year is right up with it. “It’s the weirdest feeling in the world, but the best feeling in the world.

From the team at The Horse Exchange THEx – Congratulations Al Boum Photo, Willie Mullins and Paul Townend. We can’t wait to do it all again next year!