Three Memorable Cheltenham Festival Victories

With Cheltenham Festival being such a big part of horse racing culture in the UK, it is hard not to remember some of the more high profile victories that take place there. With so many more fans watching and talking about the event than some other meets, to win memorably at Cheltenham is to become immortalized in British racing history. These three festival winners, for example, siezed their moment and went down in history as a result.

Lord Windermere

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Lord Windermere isn't necessarily a household name in horse racing, but managed to deliver in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in a big way in 2014. In one of the closer races in the history of the Gold Cup, he managed to just outlast the competition and win by a head in a race that was not being done contested even after the competitors crossed the finish line.

That was the result of a steward's inquiry that took place after the completion of the race, as Windermere was thought to have veered into the path of the eventual runner-up of the race. It was determined that the winner did nothing wrong, though, and the result stood to validate the result of one of the most fun Gold Cup races in modern Gold Cup history.

Norton's Coin

The 1990 Gold Cup was one of the biggest upsets in the history of Cheltenham Festival, when Norton's coin won the race at an astounding 100/1 odds. He outran two of the three big favourites in the race to get the win, beating 8/1 Toby Tobias by three quarters of a length and 10/11 favourite Desert Orchid by four lengths in one of the great achievements in Gold Cup history.

It is horses like Norton's Coin that make taking longshots at Cheltenham Festival a recurring activity. Even Cheltenham ante post tips from Betting.Betfair have spotlighted some of the longshots for the upcoming festival as those horses have a chance to duplicate the incredible feat that Norton's Coin pulled off nearly 30 years ago.

Best Mate

There are some names in sport that are simply synonymous with greatness. Names like Sir Alex Ferguson, Phil Taylor, and Michael Jordan. But in the horse racing world, Best Mate joined the list of names that fall into that category by winning this race, with 2004 marking the third straight Gold Cup title of what turned out to be an illustrious career of racing.

Best Mate became just the fourth horse to win three straight Gold Cups, but became just the first to do so after 1970. The modern era of horse racing has largely been the most competitive era of the sport, with even the horses at the lower end of the results running faster than many horses who used to win events. For Best Mate to win three straight Gold Cups in spite of that was a testament to just how great the horse truly was.