The Coral Cup is a handicap hurdle over about 2 miles 5 furlongs on Wednesday of the Festival. It regularly attracts fields of 26+ runners and is one of the most competitive races of the week. Finding the winner from a big field is the challenge.
Recent Winners
| Year | Winner | Trainer | Jockey | Age | SP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Jimmy Du Seuil | W P Mullins | D E Mullins | 6 | 16/1 |
| 2024 | Langer Dan | Dan Skelton | H Skelton | 8 | 15/2 |
| 2023 | Langer Dan | Dan Skelton | H Skelton | 7 | 9/1 |
| 2022 | Commander Of Fleet | Gordon Elliott | S Fitzgerald | 8 | 50/1 |
| 2021 | Heaven Help Us | Paul Hennessy | R J Condon | 7 | 33/1 |
| 2020 | Dame De Compagnie | N Henderson | B J Geraghty | 7 | 5/1 |
| 2019 | William Henry | N Henderson | N de Boinville | 9 | 28/1 |
| 2018 | Bleu Berry | W P Mullins | M P Walsh | 7 | 20/1 |
| 2017 | Supasundae | Mrs J Harrington | R Power | 7 | 16/1 |
| 2016 | Diamond King | Gordon Elliott | D N Russell | 8 | 12/1 |
Key Trends
Age profile: Seven-year-olds have won 8 of 23 renewals, making them the strongest age group. Five and six-year-olds have 4 and 5 wins respectively, with eight-year-olds on 4 and nine-year-olds on 2.
Favourite record: The favourite has won only 2 of 23 (9%). That’s a brutal record. They’ve placed just 5 times from 25 total favourite runners. The average favourite SP is about 6/1, which tells you the market is often split in these big-field handicaps. Backing the favourite here has been a losing strategy.
Trainers: Henderson leads with 4 wins from 60 runners. Elliott has 3 from 40, Mullins 2 from 55, and the Skeltons have 2 from 8 (the best recent strike rate). Alan King has 1 from 21.
Going: Winners have come on every ground type. Good accounts for 10 editions, Good to Soft for 7, Soft for 5, Heavy for 1. No notable bias.
What the Data Says
The Coral Cup is a punter’s nightmare and an each-way bettor’s dream. An average winning SP of nearly 18/1 tells you this is one of the hardest races of the week to find the winner. Commander Of Fleet at 50/1 in 2022 and Heaven Help Us at 33/1 in 2021 are recent reminders of how wide open it can be.
Langer Dan’s back-to-back wins for the Skeltons (2023-24) are unusual in a handicap — the horse was raised in the weights after his first win and still won again. That consistency is rare.
Henderson’s 4 wins from 60 runners (7%) and Mullins’ 2 from 55 (4%) show that even the big yards can’t dominate a race like this. The handicapper levels the playing field, and it’s often smaller yards that spring the surprise.
The one practical takeaway: at an average SP of 18/1, this is a race where you want to be backing at reasonable prices. The favourites almost never win (9%), so anyone taking short odds in the Coral Cup is fighting history. Better to have a couple of each-way shots at double-figure prices.
All Cheltenham Festival races are run at Cheltenham racecourse. See our Cheltenham course guide for trainer and jockey statistics, going analysis, and betting angles.