Which was the last mare to win the Arkle Challenge Trophy?

Run over two miles on the Old Course at Cheltenham and currently scheduled as the second race on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival, a.k.a. ‘Champion Day’, the Arkle Challenge Trophy is the leading race of its kind for novice steeplechasers. In other words, the race is open to horses aged five years and upwards who, prior to the start of the current season, have not won a steeplechase.

The Arkle Challenge Trophy is obviously a prestigious and valuable race in its own right – guaranteed prize money currently stands at £200,000 – but the nature of the race dictates that it is sometimes a stepping stone towards future Festival glory, in the Queen Mother Champion Chase, the Ryanair Chase or even the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

The race conditions for the Arkle Challenge Trophy decree that mares receive a 7lb weight allowance from their male rivals. Even so, winning mares have been few and far between, with just two in the last four-and-a-half decades. The most recent was, in fact, Put The Kettle On, trained by Henry de Bromhead and ridden by Aidan Coleman, in 2020. The daughter of Stowaway was also the last winner of the Arkle Challenge Trophy to follow up in the Queen Mother Champion Chase, which she did in 2021. I would wager that she was part of many a win and jackpot bet. Before Put The Kettle On, the last mare to win the Arkle Challenge Trophy was Anaglogs Daughter – still the second-highest-rated jumping mare in the history of Timeform – in 1980.