The curtain falls on the 2024 Chester Races May Festival this Friday, with the feature event of the week taking place, the Chester Cup over 2 miles 2 furlongs plus. The prestigious stamina-sapping marathon flat contest is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year. It’s been another Festival of highs and lows. Our thoughts again go out to the connections of Hidden Law, who sadly lost his life following his emphatic victory in Wednesday’s Chester Vase. He looked a classy colt in the making and it’s always heartbreaking when any thoroughbred leaves us too soon.
History Of The Chester Cup
Chester is famous worldwide as being the oldest horse racing track on the globe still in existence. The racecourse was first established in 1539, during the reign of Henry VIII. His affection for the females of the species may have been fickle, but his love for all things equine never dimmed. The racecourse would become commonly known as ‘The Roodee’ by racegoers, due to the stone cross that was forged on one of the mounds in the centre of the track. ‘Roodee’ is a corruption of ‘Rood Eye’ which is a mixture of ancient Norse and Saxon meaning ‘Island of the Cross’.
Chester is an amazing venue for history-loving racegoers with the ancient city walls, which date back to Roman times, bordering the eastern part of the racecourse. Racing can be viewed for free from this walled location. The blue riband event of the present-day May Festival, the Chester Cup, was first run in 1824 (when it was known as the Tradesmen’s Cup) and was won by Doge of Venice. It would become officially known as the Chester Cup from 1884, the year Havock was victorious, and has been known as such ever since.
Multi-Winning Chester Cup Stars
Nine horses have won the Chester Cup on two occasions, but only four have since 1978. The famous Sea Pigeon would clinch back-to-back successes at the Roodee in 1977 and 1978. There were those who thought Sea Pigeon had Classics potential at the start of his 3-year-old campaign in 1973, but he would only finish 7th in the Epsom Derby and was gelded before being sent to National Hunt trainer Gordon Richards. His National Hunt form gradually picked up and would improve even further once he was taken under Peter Easterby’s training wing in 1976.
In 1977, Sea Pigeon won the Scottish Champion Hurdle, before switching codes to clinch the first of this two wins in the Chester Cup. The then 8-year-old followed up again at the Roodee during the 1978 May Festival. However, Sea Pigeon’s most memorable race victories would come over the jumps later in his career. In winning his second Champion Hurdle in 1981, he became the joint-oldest winner of the event ever.
Top Cees Rules On The Roodee
It was almost another 20 years until we had another dual winner of the Chester Cup. The Ramsden’s Top Cees, who would hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons, later in his career, because of a libel case surrounding one of his performances, would make them for the right reasons at the Roodee in 1995. The then Alan Leonard-owned 5-year-old, who only had two wins to his name (one of those a hurdles event at Wetherby) romped to a 5-length victory in the Chester Cup. It would be Kieren Fallon’s only win in the race.
Top Cees returned to the Roodee for the 1997 renewal. This time in the famous Sangster colours, he would finish like a rocket, scooting clear in the hands of Jimmy Fortune, to record a 10-length success. He would also be in the Chester Cup line-ups in both 1998 and 2000, without making an impression. Sadly he broke down during the running of the latter event and it would be his final racecourse appearance. Amazingly, he lived on til 2021 and the ripe old age of 31.
Rainbow High Hits The Heights
Just a year after Top Cees’ final racecourse appearance, the beautifully bred Rainbow High clinched his second Chester Cup victory in the 2001 renewal. The son of Rainbow Quest and the grandson of Dancing Brave had won his first Chester Cup two years earlier in 1999. Rainbow High almost became the first ever horse to winning the prestigious May Festival contest on three occasions in 2002. However, he just missed out on glory, having to settle for second behind Fantasy Hill. Rainbow High’s trainer Barry Hills would become the most honoured handler in Chester Cup history in 2009. Daraahem claiming a fourth win in the marathon event for the Lambourn trainer.
Chester Goes Nuts For Anak Pekan
The last dual winner of the Chester Cup was Michael Jarvis’ Anak Pekan. He completed a double success in 2004 and 2005. Anak Pekan is the only other horse aside from Sea Pigeon to defend his Chester Cup crown and go back-to-back. The son of In The Wings produced a stunning display when winning his first Chester Cup in 2004 by 5 lengths. He was the 2/1 favourite that day, the shortest priced victor of the event in the modern era.
While he didn’t stroll to success when regaining his title twelve months later, it was still a highly impressive achievement, having been off the track for 200 days prior to that win. The only previous winner in the line-up this year is the 2021 winner, Falcon Eight. Dermot Weld’s 9-year-old finished 5th in 2022 and 15th of 16 last year. He’ll be looking to create history by winning two Chester Cups over a 4-year time span.
Chester Cup – The Vital Stats & Trends
The Chester Cup hasn’t been a good race for favourite backers. The last jolly to enter the winner’s enclosure at the Roodee was David Pipe’s Mamlook in 2010 and there have only been four victorious market leaders since 1990. However, 10 of the last 14 winners were priced 10/1 or lower, so horses which weren’t unfancied. Older horses have struggled to make an impact, with only two horses aged over 7 (No Heretic in 2016 & Morgans Choice in 1985) winning in the last 40+ years. Both of those winners were also only aged 8. The Official Rating looks to be a strong trend to follow with no winner rated lower than 93 since Tim Pitt’s Admiral won in 2006. Weight-wise, only two horse have carried less than 9 stone to victory in the last 10 years and none have since No Heretic in 2016.
Chester Cup – One To Watch
Putting all the above in the mixing pot and Magellan Strait looks to have a good shout. The slight concern with Joseph O’Brien’s 5-year-old is that his previous run was on the All-Weather at Dundalk in January. Previous runners coming to Chester following AW run-outs haven’t fared so well. The shock 150/1 winner of the Irish Cesarewitch at the Curragh last September is making his British debut. He will have the two-time champion jockey, William Buick, on board.
Click here for the latest Chester Cup prices
The Chester Cup is due off at 15:40 this Friday. It’s one of five live races being screened on ITV4 from 13:30 onwards. All Chester day 3 races are being shown live on Sky Sports Racing.
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Image Credit: Deposit Photos
