Cheltenham Festival 2021: Gold Cup day – live!
Frodon #Frodon
11.27am EDT 11:27
St James’ Place Hunters Chase (3.40) preview 
Professionals replace the amateurs for one year only, in a race that has gone to Ireland in seven of the last 10 years and has an Irish-trained favourite in Willie Mullins’s Billaway with Paul Townend in the saddle.
He was a pretty smooth winner in a big field at Naas last time and was the 10-length runner-up when 11-4 favourite for this last year, but he can make the odd mistake and will be just as short a price this time around.
The main hope from a British yard is Paul Nicholls’s Bob And Co (Sean Bowen), in a race that the trainer has won four times since 2004 and twice in the last four years.
His stable jockey Harry Cobden, though, is on Chameron, a horse that is part-owned by Nicholls and trained by Sam Loxton, whose late wife Rose, who died last year, was a champion trainer in the point-to-point field for many years. Rose Loxton had links to the Nicholls stable for many years, including as the groom of the outstanding staying hurdler Big Buck’s, and had a big influence on the riding career of Nicholls’s daughter, Megan, with a regular supply of point-to-point winners when she was a teenager.
Updated at 11.28am EDT
11.26am EDT 11:26
Rachel Blackmore: She’s had a week beyond her wildest dreams, but a penny for the thoughts of Rachel Blackmore, Minella Indo’s usual jockey, who decided to ride A Plus Tard in today’s race instead. It is a measure of just how good she is that she had such a difficult choice to make. Hopefully she won’t beat herself up over it.
11.22am EDT 11:22
Jack Kennedy speaks …
“I can’t believe it,” he tells ITV, while on the verge of tears. “This is what I’ve dreamt of since I was a child. I’m just so grateful to Henry and [owners] Mike and Barry Moloney for giving me the opportunity to ride him. I can’t thank them enough and I’ll owe them forever.”
On his fightback from multiple injuries: “This is what I live for and I can’t believe this is after happening. I landed over the last and he pricked his ears. He was pulling up but not out of tiredness. When he heard Rachael coming behind him he took off again.”
11.18am EDT 11:18
Minella Indo wins the WellChild Gold Cup
After suffering the disappointment of being unshipped from Festival hotpot Envoi Allen, Jack Kennedy wins the Gold Cup. Rachael Blackmore had her pick of the two Henry de Bromhead horses in this race and, in her first error of judgement this week, picked the wrong one. She has to settle for second. De Bromhead, meanwhile, become the first trainer in history to pull off the Festival Holy Trinity in the same week.
Minella Indo and Jack Kennedy win the Gold Cup. Photograph: Tim Goode/PA
11.14am EDT 11:14
WellChild Gold Cup (3.05) result
1 Minella Indo (J W Kennedy) 9-12 A Plus Tard (Rachael Blackmore) 10-33 Al Boum Photo (P Townend) 9-4 Fav12 ranAlso: 12-1 Native River 4thCSF: 39.15Tricast: 91.54
11.13am EDT 11:13
WellChild Cheltenham Gold Cup (3m 2f)
Minella Indo wins the Gold Cup from A Plus Tard and Al BOum Photo. Minella Indo and Jack Kennedy win the Gold Cup for Henry De Bromhead …
Minella Indo ridden by Jack Kennedy after winning. Photograph: Tim Goode/PA
Updated at 11.17am EDT
11.12am EDT 11:12
WellChild Cheltenham Gold Cup (3m 2f)
Minella Indo leads from A Plus Tard … Minella Indo leads over the last …
11.11am EDT 11:11
WellChild Cheltenham Gold Cup (3m 2f)
Frodon leads over the third last from Minella Indo and Al Boum Photo …
11.11am EDT 11:11
WellChild Cheltenham Gold Cup (3m 2f)
Frodon continues to lead, jumping beautifully with four to go … Minella Indo is second …
11.10am EDT 11:10
WellChild Cheltenham Gold Cup (3m 2f)
Frodon pings the eighth and seventh fences from home and Native River is next to come under pressure. Frodon from Minella Indo and Al Boum Photo …
11.09am EDT 11:09
WellChild Cheltenham Gold Cup (3m 2f)
Eleven fences to go and Frodon continues to plod along in front with Kemboy on his outside … Black Op is third … Santini is pulled up …
11.08am EDT 11:08
WellChild Cheltenham Gold Cup (3m 2f)
Champ is pulled up and Santini blunders into some birch but stays up … Frodon continues to creep along in front … Black Op is second and Kemboy in third … they’re travelling at 32 miles-per-hour … Santini is five lengths behind the field …
11.07am EDT 11:07
WellChild Cheltenham Gold Cup (3m 2f)
Frodon is on the rail, inside Kemboy and Black Op. Champ is jumping like a hairy goat but still upright …
11.06am EDT 11:06
WellChild Cheltenham Gold Cup (3m 2f)
THey’re away and running in the Gold Cup, with Al Boum Photo going off the 9-4 favourite. Native River and Frodon take up the running … Champ and Al Boum Photo make minor errors at the first …
11.04am EDT 11:04
The parade: The horses line up and parade past the empty grandstand for the benefit of the TV cameras and the viewers at home, before their handlers release them into the sole care of their jockeys and watch them canter down to the start.
11.00am EDT 11:00
Ding! Ding! The parade ring bell goes for the jockeys to mount their horses for the Festival showpiece. While much of the attention this week has been on Rachael Blackmore, she is not the only pilot in this race trying to become the first woman in history to win the Gold Cup. Bryony Frost is also riding and gets the leg up on Frodon.
10.45am EDT 10:45
WellChild Gold Cup (3.05) preview
Even by its own very high standards, this year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup – sponsored by local childrens’ charity WellChild – is rich with potential storylines and dramas, so much so in fact that Al Boum Photo’s attempt to become only the fifth horse ever to win the race three times has been somewhat overshadowed.
Rachael Blackmore hopes to become the first female rider to win, and so does Bryony Frost on Frodon. Henry de Bromhead could be the first trainer ever to win the “Big Three” at a single Festival, Colin Tizzard goes for one more big-race win before retirement with Native River, British racing attempts to salvage something from the wreckage of just four winners on the first three days … the list goes on.
Al Boum Photo has to be the place to start, though, as his course-and-distance form could hardly be any better and he is all but guaranteed to run his race. He’s unlikely to actually improve too much either though, and an up-and-comer like A Plus Tard could well be too sprightly for the nine-year-old. A Plus Tard has raced over three miles just twice, putting up a career best at Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting where he needed every yard of it, and Minella Indo, a Grade One winner over hurdles two years ago, is a useful second-string for de Bromhead. Frodon took the King George at Christmas, loves the track and gets on famously with Bryony Frost, as does Native River with Richard Johnson, returning to the scene of their epic head-to-head with Might Bite three years ago.
The novice Royale Pagaille has come from nowhere to be a contender on the basis of a remarkable run under top weight in the Peter Marsh Chase at Haydock, and along with Champ, forms the core of the home-based challenge at the end of a week when Irish dominance has reached new heights.
Vanillier, ridden by Mark Walsh, wins the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle. Photograph: Tim Goode/PA
10.41am EDT 10:41
Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle (2.30) result
1 Vanillier (M P Walsh) 14-12 Oscar Elite (Jonjo O’Neill Jr.) 40-13 Streets Of Doyen (S D Torrens) 10-116 ranAlso: 7-2 Fav Stattler 4thNon Runner: 6CSF: 476.25Tricast: 5745.14
10.40am EDT 10:40
Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle (3m) (2.30)
The unfortunate Jonathan Moore misses out on another winner through injury, with Mark Walsh the beneficiary, getting the leg up from trainer Gavin Cromwell.
Updated at 10.40am EDT
10.38am EDT 10:38
Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle (3m) (2.30)
The grey Vanillier goes a length clear as they approach the last and pulls away up[ the hill to win under Mark Walsh, who notches his second success of the meeting. Oscar Elite was second and Streets of Doyen was third.
Vanillier clear the last to win. Photograph: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images
Updated at 10.50am EDT
10.36am EDT 10:36
Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle (3m) (2.30)
Ask A Honey Bee is being scrubbed along at the back of the field, while Adrmiel continues to lead at the third flight of hurdles from home. Beatthebullet is going backwards while Barbados Buck’s is making ground around the outside …
10.34am EDT 10:34
Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle (3m) (2.30)
They’re cruising along at 30 miles per hour with Vanillier and Adrimel leading the way. You could throw a blanket over the closely bunched field …
10.32am EDT 10:32
Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle (3m) (2.30)
Off they go in the Albert Bartlett and I’ve had a fiver on N’Golo at a big price, after his namesake’s terrific performance in the Champions League against Atletico Madrid on Tuesday night. Anyway, they’re away and running and N’Golo, Stattler and Vanillier are up at the front after four flights of hurdles …
10.09am EDT 10:09
Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle (2.30) preview
The novice hurdle of choice for future staying chasers, with winners since 2000 including Bobs Worth, who landed the three-mile novice chase and then the Gold Cup in the next two seasons; Minella Indo, who runs in today’s Gold Cup; and Monkfish, who added another Festival success in the Brown Advisory Novice Chase on Wednesday. Penhill, who took the Stayers’ Hurdle a year later, is also on the roll of honour. So who will join them?
Fakiera has been the one for money overnight, supplanting Stattler at the head of the market, while Torygraph is also prominent in the betting. Perhaps Michael O’Leary will avoid accusations of bias by naming one of his horses “The Grauniad” when he gets a moment. Paul Nicholls’ only winner this week was at Taunton on Monday, but Barbados Buck’s and Threeunderthrufive have done little wrong season and along with Tom Lacey’s equally likeable Adrimel, seem likely to offer the most resistance to the Irish onslaught.
10.05am EDT 10:05
County Handicap Hurdle (1.55)
It’s another winner for the Irish, with trainer Peter Fahey saddling the long shot Belfast Banter. Kevin Sexton rides his first Festival winner at the ripe young age of 26.
10.02am EDT 10:02
County Handicap Hurdle (1.55) result
1 Belfast Banter (K C Sexton) 33-12 Petit Mouchoir (J C Gainford) 22-13 Milkwood (R T Dunne) 28-14 Eclair De Beaufeu (J W Kennedy) 11-125 ranAlso: 5-1 Fav You Raised Me UpNon Runner: 8CSF: 633.16Tricast: 18582.92
Belfast Banter ridden by Kevin Sexton wins the County Handicap Hurdle. Photograph: Tim Goode/PA
Updated at 10.06am EDT
10.00am EDT 10:00
County Handicap Hurdle (2m 1f) (1.55)
Milk Wood leads them over the last but it’s Belfast Banter who wins from Petit Mouchoir after weaving his way through the field under a good ride from Kevin Sexton.
Belfast Banter comes through to lead the field. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
Updated at 10.30am EDT
9.58am EDT 09:58
County Handicap Hurdle (2m 1f) (1.55)
Mengli Khan continues to lead them along from fifty Ball and Petit Moucher and Third Time Lucki… they’ve three-quarters of a mile to travel but only two hurdles left to jump …
9.57am EDT 09:57
County Handicap Hurdle (2m 1f) (1.55)
They’re away and running in this 25-strong County Handicap Hurdle field. Mengli Khan tows them along from Global Citizen and er, the 23 others …
9.54am EDT 09:54
Paul Townend: Asked by ITV’s Luke Harvey, down at the start, if there is any point in showing the horse the “practice” hurdle before they set off, as is customary, the jockey says: “If they don’t know how to jump them by now we’re in trouble.” He has a point.
9.53am EDT 09:53
Some sad news: ITV Racing have just announced that Chester Barnes, former English table-tennis champion turned side-kick and assistant trainer to Martin Pipe, passed away last night.
Chester Barnes Photograph: Julian Herbert/Getty Images
9.41am EDT 09:41
A nice gesture: On ITV Racing, Ed Chamberlin has just announced that, as a thank you to Cheltenham Racecourse for looking after them so well this week, the Irish trainers, jockeys and stable staff have had a – pun intended – whip round and will be donating €25,000 to WellChild, the sponsors of today’s Gold Cup.
Discussing Rachel Blackmore’s chances of beating Ruby Walsh’s record of six winners in one Festival with AP McCoy, Ed can’t resist resist a giggle when the former champ says with – pun intended – unbridled relish: “I really hope she beats him”.
9.33am EDT 09:33
County Hurdle (1.55) preview
Such is the week that Henry de Bromhead and Rachael Blackmore are enjoying that the punters are starting to back them blind, and Champagne Gold could well start favourite here having opened at around 14-1 on Wednesday. He has a fair chance, but a 12lb hike for finishing second at Leopardstown in early February does not make his life any easier.
Ganapathi, meanwhile, raced in Grade One company last time and finished a close-ish second in a Grade Two in January, yet carries 4lb less than Blackmore’s mount here, which just doesn’t feel right. Elsewhere in the field, Denise Foster’s Eclair De Beaufeu is also prominent in the betting and can boast some decent course form – albeit over fences – when second here last year in the Grand Annual Chase.
Third Time Lucki bids to improve Dan Skelton’s record in this race to what would be a fairly mind-boggling four out of the last six, while Fifty Ball and Edwardstone represent the Betfair Hurdle form having finished second and third at Newbury last month.
9.32am EDT 09:32
Rachael Blackmore: In her post-race interview, Rachael points out that Quilixios was, until very recently, a resident at the yard of suspended trainer Gordon Elliot before being moved to Henry De Bromhead’s stable. She says “all the credit should go to them, we just had to put him on the boat”.
Rachael Blackmore and Quilixios ride to victory in the JCB Triumph Hurdle. Photograph: Tim Goode/PA
Updated at 9.40am EDT