Willie Mullins and Paul Townend won the Champion Hurdle, the Queen Mother Champion Chase and the Gold Cup at Cheltenham in 2026.
Willie Mullins and Paul Townend won three championship races at the Cheltenham Festival, at Cheltenham Racecourse in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, from Tuesday 10 to Friday 13 March 2026.
The Gold Cup has been run at Cheltenham since 1924, over three miles, two furlongs and 70 yards. Each of the Festival’s championship days has a race of that stature. In 2026 Mullins trained the winners of the Champion Hurdle, the Queen Mother Champion Chase and the Gold Cup, each with Townend riding.
The mare Lossiemouth won Tuesday’s Champion Hurdle by six and a half lengths. She became the eighth mare to take the race, after Dawn Run, Annie Power and Honeysuckle. Constitution Hill was honoured the same day as he retired from jumping.
Il Etait Temps won the Queen Mother Champion Chase on the Wednesday.
On Friday Gaelic Warrior, owned by Rich Ricci, won the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup by eight lengths as joint favourite at 11-4. Jango Baie was second, and the 2025 winner, Inothewayurthinkin, finished third.
It was Mullins’s fifth Gold Cup, equalling the record of Arkle’s trainer, Tom Dreaper. Townend became the first jockey to ride five winners of the race.