Ryanair Chase

The Ryanair Chase is the fourth race on the third day of racing at the Cheltenham Festival. It is a Grade 1 National Hunt steeplechase that is run over the New Course at Cheltenham Racecourse. The race is registered as the Festival Trophy but has been sponsored by commercial airline company Ryanair since 2006 having initially been sponsored by the national newspaper, The Daily Telegraph.

Ryanair Chase Overview

The Ryanair Chase is a Grade 1 race open to horses aged five years or older run over 2 miles, 4 furlongs, and 127 yards of the new course. The race is run on day three of the Festival as the feature race, normally as the third race on the card. There are seventeen fences to negotiate during the running and the prize money to the winner is likely to be around £211,000.

The race gives top-class chasers the option of an intermediate trip between the Queen Mother Champion Chase (2 miles) and the Cheltenham Gold Cup (3 miles and 2 furlongs). The winner is sometimes next seen at Aintree Racecourse.

Ryanair Chase Betting Trends and Statistics

• Willie Mullins is once again the trainer with the best recent record winning 6 of the last 10 renewals.
• Paul Nicholls is also to be respected having won the race three times in total.
• The race rarely goes to an outsider with only three of the twenty renewals returned at odds of bigger than 8/1.
• The age bracket to concentrate on seems to be between seven and nine which has accounted for the last 14 runnings.
• French-bred horses have a terrific record in the race and have produced the last twelve winners.
• Since the race was given Grade 1 status 17 years ago, every winner has won over a minimum of 2M 4F.
• 17 of the 21 winners had previously won at Cheltenham proving that course form is vital.

Ryanair Chase History

The Ryanair Chase was one of several new races brought in at the Festival when a fourth day was introduced in 2005. There had been a similar event run at the Festival before this year called the Cathcart Challenge Cup although that was restricted to just first and second-season chasers.

Some smart chasers have taken the event notably, Cue Card (2013), Vautour (2016), Un De Sceaux (2017) as well as the aforementioned dual winners Albertas Run (2010, 2011) and Allaho (2021, 2022).

Ryanair Chase Winners