Which four horses have completed a hat-trick in the Cheltenham Gold Cup?

At the time of writing, Galopin Des Champs, trained by Willie Mullins, stands on the cusp of Cheltenham Festival immortality as he attempts to become just the fifth horse in history to complete a hat-trick in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Currently trading at odds of 4/7, few could argue that the nine-year-old does not have an outstanding chance of doing so. Indeed, Henrietta Knight, who saddled Best Mate to consecutive wins in the ‘Blue Riband’ event in 2002, 2003 and 2004, has described Galopin Des Champs as “a certainty”.

Mullins, in fact, narrowly missed out on a hat-trick in 2021, when Al Boum Photo, who was sent off favourite after back-to-back wins in 2019 and 2020, but could manage only third behind Minella Indo and A Plus Tard. Nevertheless, since the Cheltenham Gold Cup was inaugurated, as a steeplechase, in 1924, the aforementioned Best Mate aside, three other horses have achieved the feat.

The first of them was, of course, was the legendary Golden Miller, who not only completed a hat-trick in 1932, 1933 and 1934, but won twice more, in 1935 and 1936, and won the Grand National in 1934, too, just for good measure. Next up came Cottage Rake, trained by the original ‘Master of Ballydoyle’, Vincent O’Brien, who prevailed in 1948, 1949 and 1950. The Cheltenham Gold Cup was transferred to the New Course at Prestbury Park in 1959 and the first horse to complete a hat-trick in the modern era was Arkle, trained by Tom Dreaper, in 1964, 1965 and 1966.