Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup

The closing race on St. Patrick’s Thursday at the Cheltenham Festival, Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup is a handicap steeplechase run over three and a quarter miles on the New Course and open to horses aged five years and upwards, officially rated 0-145, to be ridden by amateur jockeys. The race was established in 1946, in memory of Ian Kay ‘Kim’ Muir, himself a former amateur jockey, who was killed in action with the Royal Hussars during World War II, aged 23. In 1991, the name of Fulke Walwyn, the celebrated trainer who died in February that year, was added to the race title.

Indeed, Fred Rimmell, who was a contemporary of Fulke Walwyn, remains the leading trainer in the history of the race, having saddled Mighty Fine (1951), Gay Monarch II (1955), Nicolaus Silver (1961) and Double Negative (1977). Much more recently, one of the finest amateur jockeys of his generation, Jamie Codd, has also ridden four winners, namely Character Building (2009), Junior (2011), The Package (2015) and Cause of Causes (2016), and is the leading jockey.

Fancied horses have typically fared well in the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup in recent years, with two winning favourites and five more winners at single-figure prices in the last decade. That said, Domesday Book (2017) and Chambard (2022) were both sent off at 40/1, so the odd ‘shock’ result is by no means out of the question. Indeed, Chambard was the only winner in the last 10 years to carry less than 11st 0lb to victory.