Festival Plate

The Festival Plate, or the TrustATrader Plate Handicap Chase, to give the race its full, sponsored title, began life, as the Mildmay of Flete Handicap Chase, in 1951. The race originally commemorated Anthony Bingham Mildmay, Second Baron Mildmay of Flete, who was a leading amateur jockey prior to his untimely death, aged 41, on May 12, 1950.

Nowadays, TrustATrader Plate Handicap Chase is classified as a ‘Premier Handicap’ by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) and is scheduled as the penultimate race on the penultimate day of the Cheltenham Festival, a.k.a. St. Patrick’s Day. The race is run over two miles and four and a half furlongs, and 17 fences, on the New Course at Cheltenham and is open to horses aged five years and upwards. That said, Majadou (1999) remains the only five-year-old ever to have won.

Coincidentally, Martin Pipe, who trained Majadou, remains, jointly, the most successful trainer in the history of the race, alongside Bobby Renton and Nicky Henderson, with four winners. Even more remarkably, Fred Winter, who retired from the saddle in 1964, remains the most successful jockey, with three winners, including a memorable dead-heat on Slender, trained by Ryan Price, in 1951.

Three favourites have won in the past decade but, while there were two more winners at single-figure prices in that period, they were accompanied by winners at 33/1, 22/1, 20/1, 16/1 and 14/1. Great Britain and Ireland are tied 5:5 in the last 10 runnings, but it is worth noting that Carrickboy, who popped up at 50/1 in 2013, was the last winner to be officially rated less than 140.