A history of Cheltenham Triumph Hurdle winners

The Triumph Hurdle opens Gold Cup Day every year, but who are some of its most famous winners? Here’s our brief history of the race’s best competitors ever.

The Triumph Hurdle is the opening race on the final day of the Cheltenham Festival, and it’s among the biggest event in the National Hunt calendar for juvenile horses. With a £150,000 purse up for grabs, the race draws huge crowds every year, with some of Cheltenham’s greatest competitors having claimed victory.

To help you learn more about the race and give you all the knowledge you need for betting on Cheltenham, we’ve put together a brief history of all the recent Triumph Hurdle winners. We’ll also look at some of the most notable horses, and successful jockeys and trainers, highlighting the greatest victories and the most prolific winners.

Here’s everything you need to know about the history of Cheltenham’s Triumph Hurdle winners.

Who are the last 10 Triumph Hurdle winners?

The most recent winner of the Triumph Hurdle was Poniros, a horse trained by Willie Mullins and ridden by Jonjo O’Neill Jr. The victory marked Mullins’ fourth in a record-breaking winning streak at the race, while O’Neill Jr. continued his family legacy after his father placed first in 1976. Here are the other most recent winners at the race: 

Who are the most notable horses in Triumph Hurdle history?

Because of the nature of the rules around the Triumph Hurdle, requiring horses to be no older than four years old, no horse has won more than once – as many winners are then too old the next time the race rolls around. But some horses stand out for the quality of their victories! Here are some of the best winners in the history of the race so far:

Persian War

After a successful start to his racing career, the Triumph Hurdle brought new attention to Persian War, who cemented himself as one of Britain’s greatest hurdlers of the 1960s following his win in 1967. In the following years, he would become one of the most prolific winners in Champion Hurdle history, with a historic three-year win streak from 1968 to 1970. To this day, only four other horses have achieved triple victories at the event.

Tiger Roll

While Tiger Roll is best known for his back-to-back Grand National victories in 2018 and 2019, it was a win at the 2014 Triumph Hurdle that put him on the map as a juvenile. Starting at odds of 10/1, and being partnered with jockey Davy Russell for the first time, he finished with a three and a quarter length lead in his Cheltenham debut.

Defi du Seuil

By winning the 2017 Triumph Hurdle, not only did Defi du Seuil continue his unbeaten streak across his juvenile hurdling season, but he also claimed a historic third victory in the race for trainer Philip Hobbs and jockey Richard Johnson. The pair had claimed two Triumph Hurdle victories in the 2000s, but with Defi du Seuil’s win, they were able to end a decade-long drought to become triple champions.

Vauban

Jockeyed by two-time Gold Cup winner and 2024 Grand National winner Paul Townend, Vauban proved to be leagues ahead of the rest of the field when he won the 2022 Triumph Hurdle. Starting with odds of 6/4, he finished the race with a considerable lead over the runners-up – despite almost falling at one point! His victory kicked off a hot streak for Willie Mullins, his trainer, who has been on a winning streak at the Triumph Hurdle ever since.

Who are the most successful trainers in Triumph Hurdle history?

Every horse needs a great trainer to shape it into a top-form competitor. Here are the trainers who have raised the most Triumph Hurdle winners since the race began:

Nicky Henderson

With seven Triumph Hurdle winners to his name, the six-time British jump racing Champion Trainer Nicky Henderson is the most successful trainer in Triumph Hurdle history. His first victories came in the 1980s with First Bout (1985) and Alone Success (1987); he then trained winners in each decade until the 2010s, including back-to-back wins in 2009 and 2010 with Zaynar and Soldatino.

Willie Mullins

While he’s yet to beat the record set by Nicky Henderson, Willie Mullins has dominated the competition in recent years. His first Triumph Hurdle victory came with Scolardy’s first-place finish in 2002, but he would have to wait until 2020 for his second win with Burning Victory. Since then, he’s become the most successful trainer of the 2020s, with four successive wins between 2022 and 2025, bringing his total to six Triumph Hurdle victories.

Philip Hobbs

Philip Hobbs is a three-time winning trainer of the Triumph Hurdle. His first two winners, Made In Japan (2004) and Detroit City (2006) were both ridden by four-time British champion jump jockey Richard Johnson, who ranks as one of the race’s most successful riders. More than a decade later, the pair would return to the top of the podium in 2017 with Defi du Seuil.

Fred Rimell

Starting his career as a jockey, Fred Rimell was an icon of British horse racing in the mid-20th century. Although he’s best known for his success in the Grand National, he was also a three-time Triumph Hurdle winner, becoming one of the greatest trainers in the race’s early years. Rimell first won the race with Coral Diver in 1969, followed by Zarib in 1972 and Connaught Ranger in 1978. This makes him the fastest trainer to become a three-time champion in Triumph Hurdle history.

Who are the most successful jockeys in Triumph Hurdle history?

Finally, let’s take a look at some of the riders who have led the most horses to a Triumph Hurdle victory. Here are the jockeys who have won the race more than any others:

Barry Geraghty

With five wins to his name, Barry Geraghty is the most successful Triumph Hurdle jockey of all time by a considerable margin. He won his first edition of the race in 2003 with Spectroscope, who was trained by former winner Jonjo O’Neill. Following this, he would later earn two separate runs of back-to-back wins to raise his total, with Zaynar and Soldatino in 2008 and 2009, followed by Peace And Co and Ivanovich Gorbatov in 2016.

Incidentally, three of his wins were with horses trained by the leading Triumph Hurdle trainer, Nicky Henderson.

Paul Townend

The rise of Paul Townend in the 2020s has seen him start to challenge Geraghty for the record, earning his three Triumph Hurdle wins in just four years. The Betway ambassador has become one of the most successful jockeys in the Mullins yard, earning the trainer his first win in more than a decade when he placed first on Burning Victory in 2020. He later returned to the top of the podium with consecutive wins in 2022 (Vauban) and 2023 (Lossiemouth).

Jimmy Uttley

One of the most dominant Triumph Hurdle jockeys of his era, Jimmy Uttley became the first rider to win the race three times in the late 60s and early 70s. His first victory was in 1967 with Persian War, the iconic hurdler who went on to win three consecutive Champion Hurdles, followed by England’s Glory in 1968. After his third win in 1971, where he led the Ron Smyth-trained Boxer to victory, Uttley held the record as the most prolific Triumph Hurdle winner for almost forty years until Barry Geraghty broke it.

Richard Johnson

Considered one of the greatest jump jockeys of all time, Richard Johnson is the second-most prolific winner in the history of National Hunt Racing, and the Triumph Hurdle was the major event in which he claimed the most victories. Johnson’s partnership with trainer Philip Hobbs first earned him a win in the 2004 race Made in Japan, before Detroit City made them two-time champions in 2006. The pair would have to wait more than a decade to claim their third win, however, when Defi du Seuil placed first in 2017

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