Horse Racing Betting: Donn McClean’s Three Of The Best Paddy Power Gold Cup Winners

In this article, Donn McClean delves into the rich history of the Paddy Power Gold Cup and highlights three exceptional champions that left an indelible mark on the race.

Throughout the article, McClean carefully selects and profiles three standout winners, recounting their thrilling victories, unique characteristics, and the lasting impact they've had on the sport.

Readers are treated to a blend of nostalgia and admiration for these remarkable equine athletes.

Ahead of the Paddy Power Gold Cup where you will find the best odds available on betting sites, we take a look back at three of the greatest winners in the history of the race.

Fortria, 1960 & 1962

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.

Fortria was as versatile as he was talented. 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.

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.

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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.

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.

Fortria 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. 

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. 

Our Vic, 2005

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.

Martin Pipe won the Paddy Power Gold Cup in those days. That’s just the way it was. Beau Ranger was in 1987, but that was just before Martin Pipe won his first championship, and won 14 of the next 16. 

And, of the seven renewals of the Paddy Power Gold Cup under its different guises that had gone just before 2005, Martin Pipe had won five.

Our Vic was a talented chaser who hadn’t had the best of luck. Winner of the Reynoldstown Chase the previous season as a novice, and third behind Rule Supreme in the Royal and SunAlliance Chase, he had run in just three races the previous season, and he hadn’t completed in any of them.

He might have beaten Monkerhostin in the Tripleprint Gold Cup at Cheltenham the previous December had he not come down at the final fence, but after that, he had had a season to forget.

Pulled up in the inaugural running of the Daily Telegraph Chase at Cheltenham, the modern-day Ryanair Chase, pulled up in the Betfair Bowl at Aintree.

Our Vic was a horse who went well fresh though and, obviously targeted at the race by the champion trainer, he was sent off the 9/2 favourite, just in front of old sparring partner Monkerhostin.

Timmy Murphy always had David Johnson’s horse prominent, he got him into his rhythm from early, moved back into the lead at the third last fence and stayed on well over the final fence and up the run-in to get home by over two lengths from Monkerhostin, with Kandjar D'Allier back in third.

Two and a half years later, as a 10-year-old, when trained by Martin Pipe’s son David, Our Vic won the Ryanair Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, and almost two years after that, as a 12-year-old, he won the Peter Marsh Chase at Haydock.

Imperial Commander, 2008

Winner of his only point-to-point and his only bumper, Imperial Commander won just once over hurdles, but it was as a steeplechaser that he found his metier.

Winner of his beginners’ chase at Cheltenham’s October meeting in 2007, he followed up by winning the Steel Plate and Sections Novices’ Chase at Cheltenham’s November meeting.

He went back to Cheltenham in December for a novices’ chase run over almost three and a quarter miles, but he trailed in fourth of the four runners, without one of his shoes.

He didn't race again after that that season but, freshened up by his trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies, he returned to Cheltenham the following November on his seasonal debut, for the Paddy Power Gold Cup.

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Paddy Brennan rode him that day for the first time in a race, and he had him in a nice position from early, close to the inside and not too far off the pace.

He moved up nicely as they passed the winning post with a circuit to go and over the fence on the crown of the turn past the stands, and he moved up on the outside of the leader Yes Sir as they started down the back straight.

Imperial Commander jumped into a definite lead over the water jump and, after that, he didn’t see a rival.

His jumping took him into a two-length lead at the top of the hill and, while Barbers Shop moved up nicely into his slipstream, the Queen’s horse never got upsides.

Imperial Commander quickened nicely on the run around the home turn, and he stayed on strongly over the final fence and up the run-in to win by almost three lengths.

Four months later, Imperial Commander went back to Cheltenham and won the Ryanair Chase, and 12 months after that, he went back again and landed the Cheltenham Gold Cup, staying on well to beat the 2008 Gold Cup winner Denman by seven lengths.