The Weatherbys Champion Bumper is a Grade 1 National Hunt Flat Race over about 2 miles on Wednesday of the Festival. It’s the championship for bumper horses — young, unraced-over-hurdles types who are at the start of their careers. Envoi Allen, Cue Card, Facile Vega and Sir Gerhard all launched their Festival careers here.
Recent Winners
| Year | Winner | Trainer | Jockey | Age | SP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Bambino Fever | W P Mullins | Miss J Townend | 5 | 4/1 |
| 2024 | Jasmin De Vaux | W P Mullins | Mr P W Mullins | 5 | 9/2 |
| 2023 | A Dream To Share | John E Kiely | Mr J L Gleeson | 5 | 7/2 |
| 2022 | Facile Vega | W P Mullins | Mr P W Mullins | 5 | 11/4 |
| 2021 | Sir Gerhard | W P Mullins | R Blackmore | 6 | 9/4 |
| 2020 | Ferny Hollow | W P Mullins | P Townend | 5 | 11/1 |
| 2019 | Envoi Allen | Gordon Elliott | Mr J J Codd | 5 | 3/1 |
| 2018 | Relegate | W P Mullins | Ms K Walsh | 5 | 25/1 |
| 2017 | Fayonagh | Gordon Elliott | Mr J J Codd | 6 | 7/1 |
| 2016 | Ballyandy | N A Twiston-Davies | S Twiston-Davies | 5 | 5/1 |
Key Trends
Age profile: Five-year-olds have won 12 of 20 renewals (60%). Six-year-olds have won 7, and there’s a single four-year-old winner in Cue Card (2010). The five-year-old profile is clearly dominant.
Favourite record: The favourite has won 4 of 20 (20%), placing 12 times from 21 total favourite runners. The average favourite SP of about 7/2 suggests reasonably strong market leaders. They place more often than they win — a 57% place rate.
Trainers: Mullins dominates like no other race at the Festival — 9 wins from 92 runners. That’s a 10% strike rate, which doesn’t sound overwhelming until you consider he’s had 92 runners and placed 20 of them (22% place rate). Elliott has 2 from 20, the Twiston-Davies yard 1 from 13.
Going: Good ground has produced 9 winners, Good to Soft 5, Soft 5, and Heavy 1. The Bumper seems to produce winners on all ground types.
What the Data Says
The Bumper is Mullins territory. Nine wins from 20 renewals (45%) is a staggering record. He’s won the last 4 (with A Dream To Share for John Kiely briefly breaking the run in 2023) and regularly saddles multiple runners. Patrick Mullins has ridden 3 of those winners.
Cue Card at 40/1 in 2010, Hairy Molly at 33/1 in 2006 and Relegate at 25/1 in 2018 show the Bumper can produce big-priced winners, but the average winning SP of about 12/1 is dragged up by those outliers. Most winners go off at accessible prices — 8 of the last 10 were single-figure odds.
The quality of recent Bumper winners is striking. Envoi Allen won the Bumper in 2019, then won the Ballymore, Marsh and eventually the Ryanair. Facile Vega won the Bumper and went on to the Supreme. Sir Gerhard did the same. The race is a genuine talent identifier.
Elliott’s 2 wins (Envoi Allen and Fayonagh) both involved Jamie Codd in the saddle — the champion amateur rider. If Elliott runs one with Codd up, take notice.
For punters: this is a race where Mullins’ runners deserve automatic respect. His place rate of 22% from 92 runners means roughly 1 in 5 of his Bumper runners finishes in the first four.
All Cheltenham Festival races are run at Cheltenham racecourse. See our Cheltenham course guide for trainer and jockey statistics, going analysis, and betting angles.