Martin Pipe’s eight victories in the Paddy Power Gold Cup spanned 18 years and four sponsors, but the last of them, Our Vic in 2005, was up there with the best. 1 Free Bet offer per customer, household & IP address only. Free Bet applied on 1st settlement of any qualifying bet. He was obviously the first horse to win the race twice, and his feat has been emulated by Gay Trip, Half Free, Bradbury Star and Cyfor Malta since. No horse has won the race three times. He returned to Cheltenham the following March and won the Champion Chase again, before going to Fairyhouse on Easter Monday and winning the Irish Grand National, providing Tom Dreaper with the fifth of his 10 wins in the race, and the second of an unprecedented seven in a row that ran from Olympia in 1960 to Flyingbolt in 1966.įortria returned to Cheltenham for the Mackeson Gold Cup again in 1961. He could only finish second that year behind Scottish Memories. But he went back again in 1962 and won it again. If Fortria hadn’t won another race after that, he still would have had a hugely successful racing career, but the Fortina gelding was only getting going. Tom Dreaper’s horse raced six more times that season, and he won four times, over all types of distances and all types of obstacles. We Rank The Best Horse Racing Betting Sites Given 12 stone to carry, the same weight as Fred Winter’s horse Saffron Tartan, who went on to win the King George and the Cheltenham Gold Cup later that season, Fortria kept on strongly to win well. Winner of the Cotswold Chase, the old Arkle, at Cheltenham as a six-year-old in 1958, and winner of the second running of the Champion Chase back at Cheltenham in 1960, he started off the 1960/61 season by winning over hurdles before going back to Cheltenham in November for the inaugural running of the Mackeson Gold Cup. They obviously didn’t know it then, but the inaugural running of the Paddy Power Gold Cup, then run under the Mackeson banner, produced one of its most auspicious winners.įortria was as versatile as he was talented.

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