Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup
| Grade 3 race | |
| Location |
Newbury Racecourse Newbury, England |
|---|---|
| Inaugurated | 1957 |
| Race type | Steeplechase |
| Sponsor | Hennessy |
| Website | Newbury |
| Race information | |
| Distance | 3m 2½f (5,331 metres) |
| Surface | Turf |
| Track | Left-handed |
| Qualification | Four-years-old and up |
| Weight | Handicap |
| Purse |
£200,000 (2015) 1st: £113,900 |
The Hennessy Gold Cup is a Grade 3 National Hunt chase in Great Britain which is open to horses aged four years or older. It is run at Newbury over a distance of about 3 miles and 2½ furlongs (5,331 metres), and during its running there are twenty-one fences to be jumped. It is a handicap race, and it is scheduled to take place each year in late November or early December.
The event was established in 1957, and it was initially staged at Cheltenham. The winner of the inaugural running, Mandarin, was owned by Peggy Hennessy, a member of the family which founded Hennessy, the race's sponsoring company. It was transferred to Newbury in 1960, and it was won by Mandarin for a second time in 1961. The race's second running was won by Taxidermist, ridden by the amateur rider John Lawrence, later Lord Oaksey, who was the breeder and part-owner of the 2011 winner, Carruthers.
The race's association with Hennessy continued until the 60th running, in 2016, and was British racing's longest-running commercial sponsorship at the time. The record was previously held by the Whitbread Gold Cup, which was first run seven months before the "Hennessy", and which was sponsored by Whitbread until 2001.
The Hennessy Gold Cup has been won by eight horses which have also won the Cheltenham Gold Cup. The most recent of these is Bobs Worth, the winner of the latter race in 2013.
Many Clouds became the first horse to win both the Hennessy Gold Cup and the Grand National, in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
Most successful horse (2 wins):
Leading jockey (3 wins):
Leading trainer (7 wins):
1 Be My Royal finished first in 2002, but he was subsequently disqualified after testing positive for a banned substance.
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