Ultima Handicap Chase

Registered as the Festival Trophy, the Ultima Handicap Chase has been sponsored by IT service management company Ultima Business Solutions since 2015 and run under its current title ever since. Currently scheduled as the third race on Day One of the Chelteham Festival, a.k.a. ‘Champion Day’, the Ultima Handicap Chase has the distinctiion of being the first of a dozen handicap races run during the four days.

Run over three miles and a furlong on the Old Course at Cheltenham, the Ultima Handicap Chase is open to horses aged five years and upwards, although the six-year-old Coo Star Sivola, trained by Nick Williams and ridden by Lizzie Kelly, in 2018, remains the youngest winner since the turn of the century. Fred Rimmell and Fulke Walwyn remain the leading trainers in the history of the race with four winners apiece, while jockeys Robert Thornton and Tom Scudamore both rode three winners.

The Ultima Handicap Chase has proved something of a trial for the Grand National down the years, with Royal Tan (1952), Team Spirit (1963), West Tip (1985), Seagram (1991), Rough Quest (1995) and Corach Rambler (2022, 2023) all subsequently successful in the world-famous steeplechase. Indeed, Seagram and Corach Rambler completed that notable double in the same season. Unlike many of the races at the Cheltenham Festival in recent seasons, Irish-trained winners of the Ultima Handicap Chase have been few and far between. Indeed, at the time of writing, only Dun Doire, trained in County Meath by Tony Martin, in 2006 has been the only winner trained in the Emerald Isle in the last 20 renewals.