Champion Bumper

The Champion Bumper is the last race of the day on Day 2 at the Cheltenham Festival. The race was first established in 1992 when it was originally called the Festival Bumper. It is a flat race that is run over a distance of 2 miles and 1/2 furlong. It is currently sponsored by UK conglomerate Weatherbys.

Champion Bumper Overview

The Champion Bumper is a Grade One race open to horses aged four, five or six years of age. The race is run on the old course with the distance being 2 miles and 87 yards. The winner is likely to take home around £46,000. This is a flat race where no hurdles will be jumped.

Champion Bumper Betting Trends and Statistics

• In the 32 runnings of the race Irish trainer Willie Mullins has won it a staggering 13 times.
• Ireland has won 25 of the 32 renewals with the last 21 winners all winning last time out.
• Four-year-olds have had a tough time of it with the three that won coming awhile ago.
• In the last 28 renewals, only one (Cue Card) has won from 91 runners. 3 of the past 6 winners were owned by Cheveley Park Stud although they haven’t been represented in the last 3 years.
• The market does seem to get it right nowadays with 8 of the last 10 winners returned at under 7-1. A recent run has been the norm in recent years with 7 of the last 9 winners running during February (last year’s winner Jasmin De Vaux scored at the end of January).
• A recent trend has been that the winner has previously won an Irish point-to-point with 4 of the last 6 victors achieving that.
• This winner can be crowned the best bumper horse around up until this part of the season and the winner often goes on to become a leading performer over obstacles in years to come with the likes of Florida Pearl and Cue Card being fine examples.

Champion Bumper History

The race was first introduced in 1992 when initially it was called the Festival Bumper. It had various sponsors in its early years including the Tote and Guinness with current sponsors Weatherbys taking over in 1997.

Some notable winners this century include Cue Card (2010), Envoi Allen (2019), Sir Gerhard (2021) and Facile Vega (2022). It has also been the case in the past that leading flat racing jockeys enter the race. In 2002, one of these jockeys, Jamie Spencer, prevailed victorious on Pizarro.

Champion Bumper Winners