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The Top Trainers at the Cheltenham Festival

Cheltenham Racecourse Stables
Image Credit: Dan Heap, flickr

For those in the training game, it is the Cheltenham Festival that affords some of the most prestigious races that the sport has to offer.

It’s no coincidence that the leading performers tend to do so well at the meeting, spending all year targeting their finest horses at the March showpiece and tailoring their training specifically to the unique undulations and twists and turns of the Prestbury Park track.

Historically, from a betting perspective, you can’t go far wrong when backing horses from the likes of Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott and Nicky Henderson, although these trainers tend to have their favoured disciplines, be it novice chasing, staying and so on.

In this article, we will reveal the most successful trainers of all-time at the Cheltenham Festival, and how you can make your new-found knowledge count from a betting perspective.

Trainers with the Most Wins

Willie Mullins and Ruby Walsh with Press
Image Credit: Dan Heap, flickr

As mentioned, the great and the good of UK and Irish racing have all saddled winners at the Cheltenham Festival, but some have enjoyed more success than others on the hallowed Prestbury Park turf.

Correct as of the conclusion of the 2022 edition, here’s a list of the top 10 most prolific trainers at the Cheltenham Festival:

Cheltenham Festival All Time Leading Trainers

Position Trainer Total Wins
1 Willie Mullins 88
2 Nicky Henderson 72
3 Paul Nicholls 46
4 Fulke Walwyn 40
5= Martin Pipe 34
5= Gordon Elliott 34
7 Fred Winter 28
8= Fred Rimell 27
8= Jonjo O’Neill 27
10 Tom Dreaper 26

As you can see, there clear daylight at the top between Willie Mullins and Nicky Henderson, who can both be labelled in the ‘veteran’ category having trained their first runners at the Festival back in the 1990s.

Gordon Elliott, a relative rookie having sent his first horse to Cheltenham in 2011, is climbing the leaderboard rapidly, and it is likely that he will overtake the likes of Martin Pipe and Fulke Walwyn in the coming years.

And when it comes to placing your Cheltenham Festival bets, don’t forget some of the up-and-coming trainers that are saddling big winners just not necessarily in great quality. The likes of Henry de Bromhead, Andrew Gemmell and Rebecca Curtis have come up with the goods for their backers in recent times.

The Festival’s Leading Trainer Award

Podium and Trophies

While there has been an unwritten contest among trainers to saddle more winners than their rivals at the meeting, this wasn’t formalised until 1997 when an award was introduced for the trainer who enjoyed more wins than any other.

Where two or more trainers are tied with the same number of winners, places are then taken into consideration – as was the case in 2020 when Willie Mullins pipped Gordon Elliott to the post despite both training seven winners.

Following the dominance of Paul Nicholls – courtesy of the incomparable Denman and Kauto Star – in the noughties, the power in the leading trainer stakes has shifted in recent times, with the award monopolised by just three men: since 2010, there have been only three winners in Mullins (x9), Elliott (x2) and Henderson (x2).

The overall leaderboard, dating back to ’97, is as follows:

Cheltenham Festival Leading Trainer Awards

Position Trainer Awards
1 Willie Mullins 9-time champion
2 Paul Nicholls 6-time champion
3 Nicky Henderson 3-time champion
4 Martin Pipe 3-time champion
5 Gordon Elliott 2-time champion
6 Howard Johnson 1-time champion
7 Jonjo O’Neill 1-time champion

Betting on the Leading Trainer

As the next edition of the Cheltenham Festival draws near, the chances are that you will start drawing up a shortlist of horses that you will be backing on each day.

There are plenty of other betting markets to consider too, and you might not know that with some bookmakers you can actually have a flutter on the Leading Trainer category.

And digging down even deeper, you can wager on who you think will be the Top UK or Top Irish Trainer, and even on which trainer you think will win a specific race – in the Gold Cup, for example, the leading yards will declare more than one runner as they attempt to claim the Festival’s most glittering prize.

So can anyone defeat the likes of Mullins, Elliot and Henderson, or will these most prolific Cheltenham Festival trainers prevail again?

Cheltenham Festival Leading Trainer – 1980 to 2022

Year Trainer Nationality Wins
2022 Willie Mullins Irish 10
2021 Willie Mullins Irish 6
2020 Willie Mullins Irish 7
2019 Willie Mullins Irish 4
2018 Gordon Elliot Irish 8
2017 Gordon Elliot Irish 6
2016 Willie Mullins Irish 7
2015 Willie Mullins Irish 8
2014 Willie Mullins Irish 4
2013 Willie Mullins Irish 5
2012 Nicky Henderson British 7
2011 Willie Mullins Irish 4
2010 Nicky Henderson British 3
2009 Paul Nicholls British 5
2008 Paul Nicholls British 3
2007 Paul Nicholls British 4
2006 Paul Nicholls British 3
2005 Howard Johnson British 3
2004 Paul Nicholls British 4
2003 Jonjo O’Neil Irish 3
2002 Martin Pipe British 3
2001 Cheltenham Festival Cancelled
2000 Nicky Henderson British 4
1999 Paul Nicholls British 3
1998 Martin Pipe British 4
1997 Martin Pipe British 4
1996 Ferdy Murphy Irish 2
Edward O’Grady Irish 2
Martin Pipe British 2
1995 David Nicholson British 3
1994 David Nicholson British 2
Edward O’Grady Irish 2
1993 Nicky Henderson British 2
Martin Pipe British 2
Nigel Twiston-Davies British 2
1992 Nicky Henderson British 2
David Nicholson British 2
Simon Sherwood British 2
1991 Martin Pipe British 3
1990 Nicky Henderson British 2
1989 Toby Balding British 2
John Edwards British 2
David Elsworth British 2
Josh Gifford British 2
Martin Pipe British 2
1988 Josh Gifford British 3
1987 Toby Balding British 2
Nicky Henderson British 2
Fred Winter British 2
1986 Nicky Henderson British 3
1985 Nicky Henderson British 3
1984 Michael Dickinson British 3
1983 Michael Dickinson British 3
1982 Michael Dickinson British 3
1981 Peter Easterby British 3
1980 John Edwards British 2
Edward O’Grady Irish 2
Bob Turnell British 2
Fred Winter British 2

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