Arkle Challenge Trophy

Not to be confused with Irish Arkle Novice Chase, which is run at Leopardstown in late January or early February, the Arkle Challenge Trophy is a Grade 1 contest run over two miles on the Old Course at Cheltenham, where it is currently scheduled as the second race on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival, a.k.a. ‘Champion Day’, in March. The race was introduced to the Festival programme, in its current guise, in 1969 and commemorates the legendary Arkle, arguably the greatest steeplechaser of all time, who won the Cheltenham Gold Cup three years running, in 1964, 1965 and 1966.

Open to novice steeplechasers aged five years and upwards, the Arkle Challenge Trophy currently offers £200,000 in guaranteed prize money. As such, it is a notable, high-emd contest in its own right, but is often used as a stepping stone to the two-mile chasing championship, the Queen Mother Champion Chase, the following season and thereafter. Indeed, just since the turn of the twenty-first century, Moscow Flyer, Azertyuiop, Voy Por Ustedes, Sizing Europe, Sprinter Sacre, Altior and Put The Kettle On have all won both races.

Upper Lambourn trainer Nicky Henderson, who was responsible for Sprinter Sacre (2012) and Altior (2017), also saddled another subsequent winner of the Champion Chase, Remittance Man (1991), plus Travado (1993), Tiutchev (2000), Simonsig (2013), Shishkin (2021) and Jango Baie (2025) for a total of eight wins so far. Henderson is the leading trainer in the history of the Arkle Challenge Trophy and, with his Tirmph Hurdle runner-up Lulamba currently heading the betting for the 2026 renewal, looks to have bright prospects of invreasing his winning tally.