St James’s Place Festival Hunter Chase

The St James’s Place Festival Hunter Chase, formerly known as the Foxhunters Chase, is run as part of the Cheltenham Festival. 

The St James’s Place Festival Hunter Chase takes place on Friday 14th March 2025.

The St James’s Place Festival Hunters Chase is restricted to amateur riders and takes place on the final day of the Cheltenham Festival. It was first run in 1904 and became known as the Amateur Gold Cup.

There have been eight dual winners of the race but no horse has yet managed to win it three times. The most recent dual winners were Salsify (2012, 2013), On The Fringe (2015, 2016) and Pacha du Polder (2017, 2018).

Find out more about the St James’s Place Festival Hunter Chase:

St James’s Place Festival Hunter Chase Overview

The St James’s Place Festival Hunters’ Chase is a steeplechase for amateur riders in Great Britain that is open to horses aged five and up. It will take place every year in March at the Cheltenham Festival.

It is run over a distance of 3 miles and 2 furlongs on the New Course at Cheltenham, with twenty-two obstacles to be jumped.

St James’s Place Festival Hunter Chase Previous Winners

Famous Festival Hunter Chase Winners

The most famous winner of the Festival Hunter Chase was Grittar in 1981, owned and trained by Frank Gilman and ridden by Dick Saunders. He won the 1982 Grand National as the 7-1 favourite with his rider, at 48, becoming the oldest winning jockey in the history of the great race. Saunders retired after the race with Grittar finishing fifth in the 1983 National and tenth in 1984.

The Festival Hunter Chase almost produced a Cheltenham Gold Cup winner in Rushing Wild (1992). He won by 25 lengths but fell at the third last when attempting to follow up in the Aintree Foxhunter Chase.

He was transferred to Martin Pipe’s stable, winning the Anthony Mildmay, Peter Cazalet Memorial Chase and finishing second to Jodami in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Tragically he suffered a fatal injury when contesting the Irish Grand National in 1993.

Double Silk (1993, 1994) and Kingscliff (2003) were other notable Festival Hunter Chase winners. Double Silk started 6-1 for the 1994 Grand National but fell at the thirteenth after jumping boldly in front. He was fifth in 1995 when attempting a record third victory in this race. Kingscliff gained his biggest win in the Grade 1 Betfair Chase at Haydock when beating Beef Or Salmon in 2005.

Salsify (2012, 2013) was a very fortunate winner on the second occasion. He was four lengths down and under pressure behind Oscar Delta when that horse jinked left and unseated his rider just 150 yards short of the line. Salsify missed his hat-trick bid through injury, although he did take part in the race in 2015 (pulled up) and 2017 (tenth).

Nina Carberry won aboard On The Fringe in successive seasons in 2015 and 2016. Pacha Du Polder then won for the following two seasons, ridden by Bryony Frost in 2017 and Harriet Tucker in 2018. The horse had finished strongly in fifth place in 2016 when ridden by Olympic winning cyclist Victoria Pendleton.

Key Festival Hunter Chase Trials

The nature of the qualifying conditions for this race means there are no easily identifiable key trials.

Six of the last twelve winners had won on their previous outing under rules and all but three of them had reached the frame.

Six of the last twelve winners returned to run in the race again the following season. Salsify (2012), On The Fringe (2015) and Pacha Du Polder (2017) all completed back-to-back victories.

Three of the twelve winners ran in the Aintree Foxhunter Chase with On The Fringe winning in 2015 and 2016.

Three had their next race at Fairyhouse but all were beaten.

Festival Hunter Chase Betting Trends

There have been four winning favourites in the Festival Hunter Chase in the past twelve seasons; Salsify (2013) 2-1, On The Fringe (2016) 13-8, Hazel Hill (2019) 7-2 and Billaway (2022) 13-8. There have also been plenty of shock results.

The biggest of all was 66-1 chance It Came To Pass (2020) who defeated favourite Billaway. Zemsky (2011) was a 33-1 chance and Pacha Du Polder (2017, 2018) returned at 16-1 and 25-1 for his two victories. Porlock Bay (2021) was also a 16-1 winner.

Ten of the twelve winners were rated 134 or higher. The highest officially rated winner was On The Fringe (2016) on 147. The last eight winners have all been seasoned campaigners aged ten or eleven.

Festival Hunter Chase – Top Trainers and Jockeys

Paul Nicholls and Richard Barber share the leading training honours here with four apiece. Barber won with Rushing Wild (1992), Fantus (1995, 1997) and Earthmover (1998). Nicholls has won with Earthmover (2004), Sleeping Night (2005) and Pacha Du Polder (2017, 2018).

The leading jockey (amateur jockeys) in the history of the race is Colman Sweeney who rode Sleeping Night and was twice successful aboard Salsify (2012, 2013).

Summary of the St James’s Place Festival Hunter Chase

The St James’s Festival Hunter Chase is run directly after the Gold Cup on the Friday of Cheltenham.

Known as the Ameature Gold Cup and Foxhunters chase, it has produced some memorable races over the years.

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