A brand new race will be run on Gold Cup day at the Cheltenham Festival in 2021, as a field of classy mares takes part in the inaugural Mares' Chase.
The introduction of this Grade Two has been met with great positivity from the horse racing world, and staging the Mares' Chase on the fourth and final day of this prestigious meeting will help thrust the race into the Gold Cup spotlight.
Our guide to the Mares' Chase will be published in the weeks leading up to the Cheltenham Festival.
Mares' Chase Result
Position
Name
SP
1st
Dinoblue
6/4f
2nd
Brides Hill
9/2
3rd
Shecouldbeanything
12/1
Mares' Chase Day Card
Cheltenham Day 4 Card
Time
Friday Races (Day 4)
Status
Distance
13:20
Triumph Hurdle
Grade One
2m
14:00
County Hurdle
Grade Three Handicap
2m
14:40
Mares' Chase
Grade Two
2m 4f
15:20
Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle
Grade One
3m
16:00
Cheltenham Gold Cup
Grade One
3m 2f
16:40
St James's Place Hunter Chase
Class Two
3m 2f
17:20
Martin Pipe Handicap Hurdle
Class Two Handicap
2m 4f
Mares' Chase History
Organisers at the Cheltenham Festival announced in 2020 that a Grade Two Mares' Chase would be introduced to the Festival schedule the following year.
After weeks of deliberation, it was decided that the Northern Trust Novices' Handicap Chase, run on day one, would be the race to make way for the Mares' Chase.
A reshuffle to the race schedule followed, with the Boodles Juveniles Handicap Hurdle moving to day one, and the Grand Annual being pushed back to day two, in order to run in Mares's Chase in the penultimate slot on Gold Cup day.
Bookmakers Paddy Power was revealed as the main sponsor behind the race, which will be titled the Mrs Paddy Power Mares' Chase.
Willie Mullins will have been delighted when news of a Mares' Chase at Cheltenham reached his ears. Ireland's Champion Trainer has dominated in the other two mares events at the Festival, winning nine of the 13 editions of the Mares' Hurdle, and all five runnings of the Mares' Novices' Hurdle. He will already have a couple of his best mares earmarked for a run in the first-ever Mares' Chase.
As expected, Mullins saddled a 1-2 in the inaugural Mares' Chase, as Colreevy defeated favourite Elimay by a neck. 12 months later, Elimay went one better, defeating Pink Legend and Scarlet And Dove to hand Willie Mullins a second-straight victory.
