Picking out the winner of a race like the Cheltenham Gold Cup is not an easy task, but trends can seriously help narrow down the field when using your Cheltenham free bets! We've worked out the most important Gold Cup trends from the last 10 editions of the race for you and used them to find the best horses to follow right now for the 2025 running of this famous chase.

2025 Cheltenham Gold Cup Trends

The last 10 winners:

• Were aged no older than nine (last winner aged older was 1998)
• Had run at Cheltenham before
• Had run in at least three chases
• Had won at least two chases
• Had won a Grade 1 before
• Had won on a left-handed track
• Had not run for at least 33 days before the Gold Cup, but had run at least once that season
• Last ran in Ireland or at Newbury
• Did not wear blinkers, a hood or similar, though Don Cossack and A Plus Tard wore tongue ties
• Were officially rated 164 or higher

Nine of the last 10 winners:

• Won last time out or were beaten no more than a short head, or last won at the last Cheltenham Festival (exception Minella Indo finished sixth)
• Had won over at least 3m before (Al Boum Photo's 2019 win was his first over more than 2m5f)
• Had run in at least five chases (exception Coneygree was an unbeaten novice)

Key Trials in the last 10 years

• Four of the last 10 winners last ran in the Grade 1 Irish Gold Cup in February at Leopardstown (Sizing John, Minella Indo and Galopin Des Champs), though only Sizing John and Galopin Des Champs won both, despite nine of the last 10 Irish Gold Cup winners next running in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. This year's winner was Galopin Des Champs again.
• The winner of the Grade 2 Denman Chase at Newbury in February has followed up twice in the last eight years (Native River and Coneygree). Only four winners have attempted the Gold Cup in the last 10 years, achieving those two wins and two thirds. Djelp won in 2025.
• Traditionally, the Grade 1 King George VI Chase in December has been a good trial, but its last winner was Long Run in 2011. Five runners have been placed since (Lostintranslation, Bristol De Mai, Might Bite, Long Run and Bravemansgame). Banbridge won in 2024.
• The Grade 2 Cotswold Chase in January at Cheltenham has only produced one placed horse in the past 10 years (Santini). Eight winners in that period have next run in the Gold Cup. L'Homme Presse was the 2025 winner.
• 2022 winner A Plus Tard revived what was once among the most popular last runs of Cheltenham Gold Cup winners when winning the Savills Chase in December before his Festival victory. Synchronised went this route in 2012, as did War Of Attrition in 2006 and the mighty Best Mate did too before his third and final Gold Cup win in 2004. Nine of the last 10 winners of this Leopardstown Grade 1 have run in the Gold Cup that season, gaining four placings and two wins. Galopin Des Champs won in 2024.
• Looking at past Cheltenham Festival performances, Arkle Novices' Chase winners now tend to run in the Champion or Ryanair Chases, but five of the last 10 Brown Advisory Novices' Chase winners have contested the next year's Gold Cup, (Might Bite (2018) and Don Poli (2016) placed in their Gold Cup runs). 2024 winner Fact To File is expected to line up in the Ryanair Chase this season.

Trainer Trends

• No modern trainer has saddled more than Paul Nicholls and Willie Mullins' four winners each. Mullins has won four of the last six Gold Cups, while Nicholls' last success came in 2009, with Kauto Star.
• Trainers based in Ireland have won the last six renewals and eight of the last 10.
• Henry De Bromhead saddled the first two home in the 2022 and 2021, Minella Indo beating A Plus Tard in 2021 and the roles being reversed in 2022. He also saddled Monalee to be fourth in 2020 and has only had eight runners in the race. 
• Willie Mullins' first Gold Cup winner was Al Boum Photo in 2019, and he followed up in 2020, finishing third in 2021. That was his sixth placed runner in the race in the last 10 years. Irish Gold Cup hero Galopin Des Champs won in 2023 to give him a third win, went back-to-back last season and is expected to be a short-priced favourite again this year.
• Gordon Elliott also has a good record, with one winner (Don Cossack) from eight runners. Conflated finished third for him in 2023, while Gerri Colombe was second last season.
• Nicky Henderson has not saddled a winner since Bobs Worth in 2013. 

Jockey Trends

• Thanks to Al Boum Photo and Galopin Des Champs, Paul Townend is the only current jockey to win the race more than once in recent history.
• Nico de Boinville won the race on Coneygree in 2015 and very nearly doubled up on the fast-finishing Santini in 2020.

How did the trends do last year?

Applying the key Gold Cup trends to the 2024 Gold Cup entries whittled the field down to just two contenders: Galopin Des Champs and Bravemansgame

Galopin Des Champs won the race for the second year in a row, while Bravemansgame ran a big race at a decent price to finish fifth. Galopin Des Champs was the odd-on favourite to win, and did so in impressive fashion.

Who Fits The Trends Best In 2025?

Leading the trends picks at this stage is the favourite and two-time defending champion Galopin Des Champs, who has been foot perfect this winter, winning the Savills Chase at Leopardstown in December and the Irish Gold Cup at the same track in February.

Opposition to Galopin Des Champs appears to be thin on the ground, with Fastorslow and Gerri Colombe, who would have been serious threats, ruled out this year due to injury. Paul Nicholls' stable star, Pic D'Orhy, is also bypassing Cheltenham in favour of a tilt at an Aintree Grade One.

Banbridge, who won the King George at Kempton on Boxing Day, looks to be the biggest danger to Galopin Des Champs' hat-trick bid. The Kempton race hasn't produced a Gold Cup winner in 14 years, but he ticks every box in terms of age, previous experience and the fact that he's trained in Ireland. He's an incredibly ground-dependent horse, though, and if it's soft on the day, don't expect to see him lining up.

2025 Cheltenham Gold Cup Odds

2024 Cheltenham Gold Cup Result