One of the jewels in the crown of day three of the Cheltenham Festival is, without a doubt, the Ryanair Chase, with starts at 2.40pm and always draws a crowd. It is a Class A Grade 1 chase, which is run over a distance of two miles and five furlongs. The chase is open to entrants of ages five-years-old and upwards, who are competing for a total prize of £250,000.
The Ryanair Chase was brought in as a means of partially replacing the Cathcart Chase, and although both races were run over the same distance, the Cathcart Chase was limiting, due to the fact it was only open novices and second-season chasers.
Since the replacement, the event has never looked back, proving those critics wrong, who said that it would detract from other championship races over a similar distance, such as the Queen Mother Chase or the Gold Cup.
In its first instance, the race started out as being run as a Grade Two contest, however, 2008 saw it rightly become a Grade One event.
There is no particular age range that seems to dominate at this race, with winners ranging from the 6-year-old Taranis, trained by P F Nicholls, up to the 10-year-old Our Vic, trained by D E Pipe.
Taranis is not the only of one of Paul Nicholls horses to have picked up a win at the Ryanair Chase, as Thisthatandtother won him the event’s premier run back in 2005, making him the chase’s most successful trainer to this date.
A notable trend that has emerged within in the Ryanair chase, however, is the fact that nine of the ten winners and runners up have taken a victory at Cheltenham on a prior occasion, specifically all five of the races past winners.
Of last year’s thirteen runners, it was the nine-year-old Albertas Run, trained by Jonjo O’Neill, who was first past the post.
He triumphed over a number of top contenders, including the initial favourite, Paul Nicholl’s Poquelin.
For those looking ahead to 2011′s Ryanair Chase, it is worth noting that five of the winners from the six runnings of the race have been positioned in the top three in the betting.
