Imperial Cup

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The Imperial Cup is one of the most valuable two-mile handicap hurdles of the National Hunt season.

It is staged at Sandown on the weekend before the Cheltenham Festival in March and is open to four-year-olds and upwards.

An extra incentive for entries is a bonus for the winner if they win any race at the festival.

Find out more about the Imperial Cup:

Imperial Cup

Race Overview – The Imperial Cup

Horses must be four years old or older to compete in the Grade Three National Hunt hurdle race, the Imperial Cup.

There are eight hurdles to clear throughout the race, which is raced at Sandown Park over a distance of roughly 2 miles (1 mile, 7 furlongs, and 216 yards, or 3,215 metres).

It will take place in March every year and is a Handicap race.

If you are looking for more racing tips for events taking place at Sandown Park then check out our Sandown betting tips page.

For all Sandown races, our finest racing tipsters give free horse racing tips!

Famous Imperial Cup Winners

The Imperial Cup was first run in 1907 and it was won for a record three successive seasons by Trespasser (1920-1922). The race was regarded as the premier hurdling event of the season before the introduction of the Champion Hurdle in 1927.

Secret Service (1949-1950) and High Point (1952-1953) won it twice but Precious Boy (1991 and 1994) is the only dual winner in modern times.

Famous winners include Champion Hurdler Lanzarote who won under a record weight of 12st 4lbs in 1973.

Ekbalco was another high-class winner in 1981 and David Elsworth’s popular hurdler Floyd won it in 1985.

Collier Bay won this race with just 10st 2lbs on his back for Jim Old and Tom Grantham in 1995. He went on to win the Irish Champion Hurdle and the Cheltenham Champion Hurdle the following season.

The introduction of the Cheltenham bonus helped to raise the profile of the Imperial Cup. Three horses have so far won this race and scooped the bonus by winning at the Festival. The first was Martin Pipe’s Olympian who followed up in the Coral Cup in 1993.

Pipe struck again in 1998 with Blowing Wind who won here under a big weight before winning the County Hurdle.

The most recent winner to succeed at the Cheltenham Festival was Gaspara, trained by David Pipe. The four-year-old successfully followed up in the Fred Winter Hurdle.

Key Imperial Cup Trials

Imperial Cup winners come from a wide range of trials.

The last eleven winners had all been successful at least once over hurdles and seven of them had won twice or more.

Six of them had won at least once in the current campaign and all but one had raced at least three times that season.

The temptation of the Cheltenham bonus has proved irresistible to connections for six of the last eleven winners. Three of them ran in the Martin Pipe Hurdle and two were placed but missed out on the prize. Three ran in the County Hurdle but failed to trouble the judge.

Two recent Imperial Cup winners ran next in the Scottish Champion Hurdle at Ayr but both were beaten.

None of the last eleven winners of the race managed to win again before the end of the season. That was until 20223.

Favourites have a desperate recent record in the Imperial Cup.

The last eleven have been beaten and only two of those winners featured in the top three in the betting. Baltimore Rock (2014) started 7-1 third favourite and Langer Dan (2021) 5-1 second favourite, although the latter ran in the smallest field (9 runners) in recent times.

There have been plenty of shock results in the Imperial Cup. Ebony Express won at 33-1 in 2015 and there have been four 20-1 winners during the last eleven years; Paintball (2012), First Avenue (2013), Mr Antolini (2018) and Surprise Package (2022).

All eleven winners were rated between 125 and 136, the highest being Malaya in 2019.

Horses aged five and six have the best recent record.

The last four-year-olds to win the race were Gaspara (2007) and Ashkazar (2008), both trained by David Pipe.

Imperial Cup Previous Result

Imperial Cup – Top Trainers and Jockeys

Martin Pipe farmed this race successfully with six winners between 1989 and 2005; Travel Mystery (1989), Olympian (1993), Blowing Wind (1998), Polar Red (2002), Korelo (2003) and Medison (2005).

His son, David, has won it three times with Gaspara (2007), Ashkazar (2008) and Baltimore Rock (2014).

Paul Nicholls had to wait until Malaya in 2019 for his first win in the race while Surprise Package (2022) was the first Irish-trained winner since Victram in 2006.

Tony McCoy leads the jockey standings in the Imperial Cup with five winners.

The first four were trained by Martin Pipe with his fifth and final victory coming aboard the Philip Hobbs-trained Qaspal in 2010.

Nicky Henderson rode Acquaint to victory as an amateur jockey in 1977 and trained Dave’s Dream to win in 2009.

Betting on the Imperial Cup

Punters hoping to pick up a pre-Cheltenham bonus with a bet on the Imperial Cup have been sadly disappointed in one of the trickiest handicap hurdles of the season.

The Cheltenham bonus offer ensures that this race will always be fiercely competitive which means there are plenty of each-way betting opportunities.

Imperial Cup Facts

  • The Imperial Cup is a National Hunt hurdle race in Great Britain which is open to horses aged four years or older.
  • It is run at Sandown over a distance of roughly 2 miles, and during its running, there are eight fences to be jumped.
  • The race was first run in 1947.

Summary of the Imperial Cup

Thank you for reading our Imperial Cup guide.

We have looked at history, stats, odds, tips and more so you have all the information you need, whether you are placing a bet or simply watching the race!