Imperial Cup: Past Winners, Stats & History

About the Imperial Cup

The Imperial Cup at Sandown is one of the most prestigious National Hunt hurdle races in all of the racing calendar and is therefore seen as one of the most important. It is run on a Saturday in March, only a few days before the start of the world renowned Cheltenham Festival. The race features horses aged four years and older, and is seen as one of the faster-run races in the National Hunt season due to its short distance and therefore fewer hurdles, of which there are just eight.

Sandown Park racecourse was first opened in 1875 which makes it about the 25th oldest British racecourse still featuring races. It was 32 years after the course opened, in 1907, that the very first Imperial Cup was held. Upon its conception the race was heralded as the most important hurdle race of the year, and this was the case until the very first Champion Hurdle was held in 1927, although the Imperial Cup is still held in the highest of regard to this very day.

Money Talks

As this race has been seen from its very origin as one of the pinnacle features of the racing year, there has always been extremely stiff competition within the field, drawing out the very best from horses, jockeys and trainers, all vying for the sizable purse on offer. In fact, between 1992 and 2021, the sponsor of the event offered a bonus to the owner of the winning horse if they could continue their great form and win any race at the Cheltenham Festival the following week, though this is no longer in place. Some trainers believe that running at Cheltenham may put too much strain on a horse, however, and the majority of the most recent winners have not been entered to race at Cheltenham just a week later.

Imperial Cup Winners at the Cheltenham Festival: 1990 – 2023

This bonus was however won by several horses over the years including Olympian in 1993, Blowing Wind in 1998, and Gaspara in 2007. The bonus up for grabs was suspended in 2016 as the event was unsponsored, although Matchbook sponsored the event in 2017 and brought it back to the tune of £50,000, and even doubled it in 2018 to £100,000. The sizable figure of £50k was last on offer to Langer Dan in 2021, who narrowly missed out on the windfall after finishing second in the Martin Pipe Handicap Hurdle. The bonus scrapped after that year.

Simply The Best

As previously stated, this event is one which only attracts the best in the sport, so it seems only fitting that the record for the most wins by a jockey should be held by arguably one of the greatest jockeys who has ever graced the sport: Tony McCoy. He won the contest an amazing five times during his illustrious career. Three of those rides were under the record-holding trainer Martin Pipe who oversaw six different winners, a simply astounding achievement in anyone’s book.

As for the equestrian side of the record books the most recorded wins by any horse was the three consecutive wins achieved by Trespasser from 1920 to 1922. To date there has only ever been three other horses who have won the event twice, surely a testament to how difficult getting the better of the top-quality field often is.

There are some very interesting trends regarding the race. For instance, in the 22 editions of the race up to and including 2023, 20 of the 22 winners had not won more than twice over hurdles previous to the Imperial Cup; 20 out of those 22 winners had run in the six weeks running up to the race; and finally, 17 of those 22 winners were carrying 10st 13lb or less.