A capacity crowd had squeezed into the grandstands on Friday hoping to see a football legend lift the festival’s biggest prize, but the greatest trainer in National Hunt history had other ideas. The Gold Cup was one of the last races at the meeting to elude Willie Mullins until his first win in 2019. Now he has five, joining Tom Dreaper, Arkle’s trainer, as the co-holder of the all-time record, after Gaelic Warrior’s relentless charge up the hill to an eight-length success.
Paul Townend, meanwhile, is now out on his own as the only rider to win five Gold Cups, one more than Pat Taaffe, who steered Arkle to all three of his victories in the 1960s.
