Who Are The FIVE British-Trained Horses With 2025 Cheltenham Gold Cup Entries?

At the latest declaration stage, the 2025 Cheltenham Gold Cup entries saw just 19 horses remain – of which only FIVE are British-trained and a record low figure for the home-grown runners.

2025 Cheltenham Gold Cup Entries See Just FIVE British-Trained Runners

The Cheltenham Festival showcase race – the Gold Cup – has been won by an Irish-trained horse for the last six years and that run looks set to continue in 2025 with the entries heavily weighted with Ireland-based runners.

Tuesday 7th January saw the latest declaration stage for the Cheltenham Gold Cup entries, which squeezed the field down to just 19 runners – of which 13 were Irish-trained, one from France and only five are housed in Britain.

You can see from the table of GB Cheltenham Gold Cup runners over the years, this figure of just five is by-far the lowest at this stage building up to the race on Friday 14th March.

The lowest previous GB Gold Cup entries stood at 11 in 2024 and 14 in the two years prior to that – meaning the Cheltenham horses trained in Britain deemed good enough to tackle the best Festival race has been on the decline now for four years.

Britain’s Cheltenham Gold Cup Entries Since 2011

Who Are The Remaining British-Trained 2025 Cheltenham Gold Cup Entries?

Grey Dawning

Won the Turners Novices’ Chase at the Cheltenham Festival in 2024 and since then has been touted as a Gold Cup contender.

However, has faulted a bit since – running second in the Betfair Chase at Haydock in November with another of the British Cheltenham Gold Cup entries Royale Pagaille in front of him.

He then ran in the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day – being sent off the general third favourite with the best horse racing betting sites but was pulled up.

The return to Prestbury Park might help and softer ground seems a must – but overall Grey Dawning is on a bit of a recovery mission.

Ahoy Senor

A hard horse to catch right, but on his day is a high-class staying chaser, who hails from the Grand National-winning yard of Lucinda Russell.

Has only won four of his 20 starts over fences though and at the time of writing is ten races without a win – with his last success coming at Cheltenham in the Cotswold Chase in 2023.

Ahoy Senor was also sixth in the Ryanair Chase at the 2024 Festival, runner-up in the 2022 Brown Advisory to another possible UK Gold Cup runner L’Homme Presse, but also fell in the 2023 Gold Cup.

If making the final 2025 Cheltenham Gold Cup entries this will be his fourth Festival appearance.

The Real Whacker

Another past Cheltenham Festival winner that will be flying the UK flag in the Gold Cup in 2025.

The Real Whacker lowered the colours of Gerri Colombe in the 2023 Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase and has a top overall track record – winning at Prestbury Park three times.

He ran another cracker last time out when a fair fourth in the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day and also landed the Charlie Hall Chase this season when seeing off Bravemansgame.

Royale Pagaille

If the Cheltenham Gold Cup was staged at Haydock on soft or heavy ground, then Royale Pagaille would probably be one of the favourites.

The horse simple loves Haydock and has won five of his seven career wins at the Lancashire venue. His most recent came only this season in the Betfair Chase – seeing off Grey Dawning by two lengths, which was his second win in the Grade One contest.

Last season he fell at Cheltenham on Trials Day in the Cotswold Chase, but also has experience of the Gold Cup – having run in the race in 2021, 2022 and in 2023.

With his best Gold Cup finish coming in 2022 when fifth to A Plus Tard, with his last try in the race resulting in a sixth to Galopin Des Champs in 2023.

L’Homme Presse

The final of the possible 2025 Cheltenham Gold Cup entries for Britain could be L’Presse Homme – who is yet another past winner at the Festival.

This Venetia Williams-trained 10 year-old landed the 2022 Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase, when beating Ahoy Senor by 3 1/2 lengths in what was a top Cheltenham Festival result for connections.

He’s had a few setbacks since but returned last season with a win at Lingfield at their Winter Millions meeting and was a gallant fourth in the Cheltenham Gold Cup 12 months ago.

L’Homme Presse is a horse that goes well fresh too and that was backed up again in his most recent run when third off a 286-day break in the King George VI Chase on Boxing Day.

Therefore, we can expect connections to keep this horse fresh until the Gold Cup in March. Which would see him head there off around 2 1/2 months off the track.

When Is The 2025 Cheltenham Gold Cup?

📅Date: Friday 14th March 2025
⌚Time: 4:00pm
🏇Racecourse: Cheltenham
🔄Trip: 3m 2 1/2f
💷Winning Purse: £351,688
📺 TV: ITV / Racing TV

Who Was The Last British-Trained Cheltenham Gold Cup Winner?

With ALL of the last six Cheltenham Gold Cup winners trained in Ireland you have to go back to 2018 to find the last British-trained winner.

Step forward Native River, who won the Gold Cup in 2018 for trainer Colin Tizzard and provided former champion jockey Richard Johnson with his second winner in the race. He’d previously won the Blue Riband in 2000 with Looks Like Trouble.

Native River saw off the favourite that year Might Bite. Outstaying the Henderson horse by 4 1/2 lengths.

During his career Native River ran at the Cheltenham Festival six times, including in the Gold Cup on four occasions.

His overall record in the race read 3-1-4-4.

Prior to Native River winning the 2018 Gold Cup, the only other British-trained winner since 2014 was Coneygree in 2015 for Mark Bradstock.

Latest 2025 Cheltenham Gold Cup Entries

See below the full Cheltenham Gold Cup entries at this stage, plus where they are trained.

Once the final runners are out nearer to race date on Friday 14th March, there will also be many Cheltenham betting offers to snap up.

Note:

Recent Cheltenham Gold Cup Winners (Last 10 Years)

WATCH: Galopin Des Champs Win The 2024 Cheltenham Gold Cup

Andy Newton

Betting Expert

Andy Newton is a well-known horse racing journalist, who regularly features on the Final Furlong Podcast, plus is a contributor to SportsCasting, GeeGeez.co.uk, FromTheStables and TrainersQuotes. Andy has also featured in the Official Weatherbys Cheltenham Festival Guide and has a regular monthly column in the popular Racing Ahead magazine – where he specializes in horse racing trends and stats.

View all posts by Andy Newton