Irish Gold Cup

The Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup is a prestigious Grade 1 Steeplechase and is run over three miles. The race is run annually in late January or early February at Leopardstown Racecourse as part of the Dublin Racing Festival. It is open to novice chasers and seventeen national hunt fences are to be jumped.

Irish Gold Cup Overview

The Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup is a Grade 1 Steeplechase that is run usually in late January or early February. It attracts high-class novice chasers over three miles. It often serves as a trial for the Gold Cup itself at the Cheltenham Festival a round six weeks down the line. Galopin Des Champs has won the race for the last three years.

The race is run at Leopardstown and there are seventeen fences to be jumped. The race carries a valuable first prize of almost €140,000.

Irish Gold Cup Betting Trends and Statistics

The leading trainer in the Irish Gold Cup in recent years is Willie Mullins who has won the race nine times. Those eight winners come from Rule Supreme (2005), Kempes (2011), Quel Esprit (2012), Sir Des Champs (2013), Bellshill (2019), Kemboy (2021) and Galopin Des Champs (2023,2024 & 2025). Other trainers who have recorded multiple wins in the Irish Gold Cup are Gordon Elliott (2), Michael Hourigan (2) and John Kiely (2).

The leading jockey in the Irish Gold Cup in recent renewals is Paul Townend who has won the race three times. Those three wins came on the same horse in Galopin Des Champs (2023,2024 & 2025). Derek O’Connor has a perfect record in the race and has won it on the only occasion that he had a ride (Edwulf, 2018). A jockey to avoid in the race is Sean Flanagan who has not even managed to be placed from four previous rides in the race. The race usually takes a little over six minutes to run and only three favourites have obliged out of the last ten renewals.

Irish Gold Cup History

The Irish Gold Cup was first run back in 1987 under the original name of the Vincent O’Brien Irish Gold Cup. The race title was inspired by the successful Irish horse trainer Vincent O’Brien. The race underwent a name change in 1991 when it was called the Hennessy Gold Cup after the name of the sponsor.

In 2016, Hennessy ended their sponsorship of the race and it was simply known as the Irish Gold Cup for that year’s race. Online bookmaker Unibet stepped in to sponsor the race between 2017 and 2019. Since the year 2020, the race has been sponsored by Irish bookmaker Paddy Power and has been known as the Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup ever since.

Throughout its existence, the Irish Gold Cup has been seen as a leading trial race for the prestigious Cheltenham Gold Cup and it’s now an integral part of the Dublin Racing Festival schedule. There have been four occasions when horses that have won the Irish Gold Cup have gone on to win the showpiece race at the Cheltenham Festival in the same year. These winning horses have been Jodami in 1993, Imperial Call in 1996, Sizing John in 2017, and Galopin Des Champs in both 2023 and 2024.

Irish Gold Cup Winners