Has any horse ever won the Champion Hurdle, Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National?


The Cheltenham Gold Cup was inaugurated, in its current guise, in 1924 and the Champion Hurdle in 1927 but, in over nine decades, just one horse has won both races at the renowned Cheltenham racecourse. That horse, or mare, was Dawn Run who, in 1984, won the Champion Hurdle – as part of a unique treble, which also included the Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown and the Grande Course de Haies d’Auteil – and, in 1986, snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Dawn Run never ran in the Grand National; sadly, she suffered a broken neck during a fall in the Grande Course de Haies d’Auteil later in 1986.

However, two horses have won the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Grand National. In fact, the first of them, Golden Miller won both races in 1934 – the year in he recorded the third of his five consecutive wins in the Cheltenham Gold Cup and broke the course record at Aintree – and remains the only horse to do so in the same season. The second, L’Escargot, won the Cheltenham Gold Cup two years running, in 1970 and 1971, before denying Red Rum his third consecutive win in the Grand National, in 1975.

No horse may have ever won the Champion Hurdle, Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National, but one man who did was the late Fred Winter; in fact, he won all three races as a jockey and as a trainer.

What is the difference between a fence and a hurdle?

Fences and hurdles or, more correctly, ‘flights’ of hurdles, are obstacles to be negotiated in different types of National Hunt race and, consequently, differ in their construction, height and rigidity. Fences, which are used for steeplechase races, are the more substantial, higher and less yielding of the two. Steeplechase fences typically consist of a rigid steel or wooden frame, filled with artificial or real birch, cut to size and bound together. With the exception of a water jump, all steeplechase fences must be a minimum of 4’ 6” in height. By contrast, hurdles, which are used, unsurprisingly, in hurdle races, consist of individual, lightweight panels of cut brushwood, each at least 3’6” in height. The panels are driven into the ground, side-by-side, at an angle, to create a ‘flight’ of hurdles at least 30’ wide and at least 3’1” high.

What is the Tote?

Established by an Act of Parliament in 1928, the Tote was, until sold to Betfred in 2011, a state-owned bookmaker. Formerly known as the ‘Horserace Totalisator Board’, the Tote differs from other bookmakers insofar as it offers pari-mutuel, or pool, betting on a variety of horse racing markets.

Straightforward win, place and each-way markets are available, along with more ‘exotic’ markets, but all stakes for each market are added to a kitty, or pool, from which the operator takes a percentage, before calculating the winning dividend. The dividend amount is determined simply by dividing the remainder of the pool by the number of winning bets.

Since 1992, other bookmakers have been able to take Tote bets, which are added to the appropriate pools, via a spin-off, known as Tote Direct. The seven-year monopoly on pool betting held by Betfred expired in July, 2018, but market rivals the Alizeti consortium, which already owns 25% of the Tote, and Britbet, which has the backing of 55 British racecourses, have agreed that the Tote will remain ‘as-is’ until at least 2025.

Did the Derby used to be run on a Wednesday?

Yes, it did. For most of the twentieth century, the Derby was run on Epsom Downs on the first Wednesday in June. The race was staged on a Tuesday between 1915 and 1918 and on a Saturday between 1942 and 1945, when run, as the ‘New Derby’, at Newmarket, and on a Saturday again between 1947 and 1950, and in 1953, following its return to Epsom Downs. However, in the face of dwindling attendances, the last Derby to be run in its traditional Wednesday slot was the 1994 renewal, won by Erhaab, and since then the race has been run on a Saturday afternoon. The move was not universally welcomed and was subsequently described by various commentators as ‘a mistake’ or even ‘a catastrophic blunder’. Nevertheless, at one point, in the face of declining TV audience figures, a Saturday evening slot for the premier Classic was mooted by the racecourse executive at Epsom Downs.

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