Being able to stand up in the saddle and salute the roaring crowds at Cheltenham must be one of the most satisfying sensations felt by any sportsperson. Some riders have got to experience it on numerous occasions, as we look at the most prolific jockeys in the history of the Cheltenham Festival.
1. Ruby Walsh – 59 Winners
Now the expert analyst for ITV Racing, Ruby Walsh was the king of Cheltenham during his riding career. His partnerships with Paul Nicholls and Willie Mullins invariably ensured he was on the biggest names, so that by the time he retired in 2019, he had ridden 59 winners at the biggest meeting of the year.
Of those 59, 14 came in championship contests, as he rode the likes of Big Buck’s to four consecutive Stayers’ Hurdle wins, and Kauto Star to Gold Cups in 2007 and 2009. That is not to mention Hurricane Fly, aboard whom he won two Champion Hurdles, and Master Minded, the winner of back-to-back Queen Mother Champion Chases with Walsh aboard in 2008 and 2009.
Twice, Walsh rode seven winners for the week, in 2009 and 2016, while his association with Quevega, the mare who won more times at the Cheltenham Festival than any other horse, provided him with six Mares’ Hurdles before adding another two before his retirement.
Although he was often the man charged with bringing the favourites home, he also found time to ride two 25/1 winners during his Cheltenham career, courtesy of Blowing Wind in the 2002 Plate Handicap Chase, and Briar Hill in the 2013 Champion Bumper. That latter contest saw his first ever Festival triumph aboard Alexander Banquet in 1998, while his last success came in the first race of his final Cheltenham, as Klassical Dream won the 2019 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.
2. Barry Geraghty – 43 Winners
During a career so often intertwined with Walsh’s, Barry Geraghty continued one year longer, retiring in 2020 having eventually racked up 43 Cheltenham Festival victories. That extra Festival paid dividends, as he enjoyed his joint best ever Cheltenham with five winners in 2020, taking him further clear in second place among jockeys of all time.
His association with Moscow Flyer got the ball rolling in many respects; that brilliant three-time Cheltenham Festival hero provided Geraghty with win number one at the meeting in the 2002 Arkle, before securing him his first championship success in the 2003 Champion Chase. He added another Champion Chase for good measure in 2005, the second of five in the race for Geraghty.
The man from County Meath completed the clean sweep of championship races when Punjabi sprung a 22/1 surprise in the 2009 Champion Hurdle, also Geraghty’s biggest-priced winner. He would ultimately reach four wins in the race, just one fewer than the Champion Chase, with Epatante giving him one last showcase success in 2020.
The Gold Cup did not elude him for long, his first arriving with kicking King in 2005, his second in 2013 with Bobs Worth. The latter’s trainer, Nicky Henderson, regularly called upon Geraghty’s services which ensured he rode perhaps the greatest chaser of a generation in Sprinter Sacre to the 2013 Arkle. Although he forged a far greater association with Henderson than Willie Mullins, Geraghty’s last Cheltenham winner came for Mullins via Saint Roi in the 2020 County Hurdle.
3. Paul Townend – 34 Winners
Comfortably clear among those still riding, Paul Townend doubtless has the two above him in his sights as he readies for another Cheltenham Festival as Willie Mullins’ stable jockey.
Townend has 34 Cheltenham winners to date, effectively accruing ten of those while Walsh’s understudy before his retirement in 2019. Since then, 24 more have arrived in just five seasons, as he has also amassed more Gold Cup wins than all bar Pat Taaffe with four, two as Al Boum Photo’s rider, and two as Galopin Des Champs.
He has a glorious chance of taking the record for himself in 2025 as Galopin Des Champs seeks his hat-trick, though wins in the Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase and Stayers’ Hurdle have all arrived too, Penhill being his first championship winner in the last of those contests in 2018. At the time, he was only Townend’s eighth Festival winner, seven years after his first on What A Charm in the Fred Winter in 2011.
It was one of his earlier victories, aboard 25/1 shot Wicklow Brave in the 2015 County Hurdle, which saw Townend guide his biggest outsider to success. In more modern times, last year’s meeting saw Tonwnend crowned Cheltenham’s champion again with six winners in all, including a Champion Hurdle-Gold Cup double. Reaching that number again will see him rise to 40 victories in all, just three shy of Geraghty.
4. AP McCoy – 31 Winners
It is scarcely believable that AP McCoy was Champion Jockey in 20 consecutive seasons. That did not always coincide with significant success at the Cheltenham Festival, though there were still some memorable triumphs for one of the great Irish sportspeople of all time.
Kibreet’s 1996 Grand Annual success got him started, and he recorded his own Champion Hurdle-Gold Cup double within a year, guiding Make A Stand and Mr Mulligan to their respective triumphs. Despite that, he only won four more championship races, as the Stayers’ Hurdle always eluded him.
His most famous successes were invariably aboard those who seemed destined not to win. Edredon Bleu’s Champion Chase win in 2000 was a triumph of willpower, though nothing compared to Wichita Lineman’s extraordinary success in the 2009 William Hill Trophy (now the Ultima Handicap Chase), which is regularly cited as one of the great rides of all time.
20/1 shots Mr Mulligan and Alderwood were McCoy’s great outsiders, while a fairytale victory in his last Festival was secured by 16/1 shot Uxizandre in the 2015 Ryanair Chase.
5. Davy Russell – 25 Winners
Although he did not experience as many Grade 1 triumphs as the above names, Davy Russell recorded some spectacular days at the Cheltenham Festival which trump any of that quartet.
Russell was responsible for riding 25 winners in all at Cheltenham. Only one of those was in a championship, though that 2014 win aboard Lord Windermere in the Gold Cup came in a madcap finish in which Russell drove determinedly to the finish. That came on a day in which he rode a sensational 3,926/1 treble: Tiger Roll won at 10/1 in the Triumph Hurdle, lord Windermere was a 20/1 shot, while Savello claimed the Grand Annual at 16/1.
Even that trio could not come close to the individual odds of Joe’s Edge in the 2007 William Hill Trophy: Ferdy Murphy’s ten-year-old went off at 50/1. That was only Russell’s second Festival success, but it is fair to say his record at the meeting improved with age, as his two best Cheltenhams were in 2018 (four winners) and 2020 (three winners).