Cheltenham Festival’s Prestbury Cup competition crowns the winner in the annual battle between Great Britain and Ireland at the four-day meet.
The Cup was first awarded in 2014 and charts the number of wins clocked up by British-trained horses against the number achieved by runners trained in Ireland.
Given there are 28 races in total at Cheltenham, the magic number to be assured of Prestbury Cup glory is 15. However, as there are trainers from other nations at the Festival, it is still possible to win the Cup with fewer victories.
Prestbury Cup results 2023
We will the record the 2023 Cheltenham Festival results here as they happen to keep readers on top of the latest Prestbury Cup standings from the moment the action kicks off on March 14th.
| Great Britain | Ireland |
Prestbury Cup prediction and odds 2023
Since tying in 2019, Ireland have been sweeping the floor with Great Britain and that dominance is reflected in their odds of 1/10 to retain the Prestbury Cup in 2023.
Great Britain will be aiming to win it for the first time since 2015, but the unfancied home trainers are out at 8/1 for a reason.
Irish trio Willie Mullins, who was crowned top trainer in 2022 with 10 victories, Henry de Bromhead (three wins) and Gordon Elliott (two wins) locked out the top three positions in the trainer leaderboard 12 months ago.
For Britain, only Nicky Henderson and Venetia Williams (both two) scored winners at the Festival as Britain tabled 10 wins to Ireland’s 18. It’s going to take something special for Britain to overturn a eight-win deficit in the Prestbury Cup this year.
Prestbury Cup previous winners
| Year | Winner | Ireland | Great Britain |
| 2022 | Ireland | 18 wins | 10 wins |
| 2021 | Ireland | 23 wins | 5 wins |
| 2020 | Ireland | 17 wins | 10 wins |
| 2019 | Tie | 14 wins | 14 wins |
| 2018 | Ireland | 17 wins | 11 wins |
| 2017 | Ireland | 19 wins | 9 wins |
| 2016 | Ireland | 15 wins | 13 wins |
| 2015 | Great Britain | 13 wins | 14 wins |
| 2014 | Great Britain | 12 wins | 15 wins |
Willie Mullins
Mullins is the most successful trainer in Cheltenham Festival history, with 88 victories to his name at the March meeting. He added 10 of those wins in 2022 — a Cheltenham record for a single meet — as he was crowned the top trainer for a ninth time. And he is expected to run his own record close as the world of jump racing prepares to return to the Cotswolds for the 2023 Festival, with Ireland’s champion trainer Mullins boasting 10 favourites heading into Cheltenham.
Gordon Elliott
Two-time Cheltenham top trainer Elliott managed just two winners at the Festival 12 months ago and will have his sights set on reeling in Mullins this time around. The latest of those two top trainer awards came in 2018, when Elliott’s yard delivered eight victories. It was a record at the time and was all the more impressive given his horses drew a blank on the opening day of that meeting. Elliott has 32 wins at the Festival, dating back to his first triumph with Chicago Grey in 2011.
Nicky Henderson
Henderson remains Britain’s great hope at the Cheltenham Festival, with his 72 Festival winners placing him second on the all-time list behind Mullins. He has won or shared the top trainer prize at the meeting on nine occasions but has not been able to loosen the Irish stranglehold since he last topped the charts in 2012. Henderson will almost certainly add to his tally this year, with Constitution Hill his leading hope, but he’s unlikely to trouble Mullins in the quest for top trainer honours.
Henry De Bromhead
De Bromhead has 18 winners at the Cheltenham Festival and, though he has never been crowned top trainer, has enjoyed unprecedented success at Prestbury Park. He is the only trainer to have won the Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase and the Gold Cup in the same year, with Honeysuckle, Put The Kettle On and Minella Indo his triumphant horses at the 2021 Festival. A Plus Tard, who came second in the Gold Cup in 2021, won 12 months later to hand De Bromhead a second successive victory in the blue-riband race. A Plus Tard is 6/1 second favourite to hand De Bromhead Gold Cup glory again in 2023.
Paul Nicholls
Six-time top trainer Nicholls has won the Gold Cup four times, but he has endured a difficult time in recent years and drew blanks in 2021 and 2022. While Nicholls might be considered one of the casualties of the Irish grip on jump racing, he has been crowned British jump racing Champion Trainer thirteen times and boasts 46 winners at the Festival. Nicholls had previously trained a winner at 18 successive Cheltenham Festivals from 2003 to 2020. In 2023, Hermes Allen, favourite in the Ballymore Novices Hurdle, and Gold Cup 8/1 shot Bravemansgame are among his headliners.