1996 Cheltenham Gold Cup
The 1996 Cheltenham Gold Cup was a horse race which took place at Cheltenham on Thursday March 14, 1996. It was the 69th running of the Cheltenham Gold Cup, and it was won by Imperial Call. The winner was ridden by Conor O'Dwyer and trained by Fergie Sutherland. The pre-race favourite One Man finished sixth. There was one fatality in the race when Monsieur Le Cure ridden by Jason Titley took a heavy fall at the 6th fence breaking his neck.
Imperial Call was the first winner of the Gold Cup trained in Ireland since Dawn Run in 1986.
Race details
- Sponsor: Tote
- Winner's prize money: £131,156.00
- Going: Good
- Number of runners: 10
- Winner's time: 6m 42.4s
Full result
* | Horse | Age | Jockey | Trainer † | SP | |
1 | Imperial Call | 7 | Conor O'Dwyer | Fergie Sutherland (IRE) | 9/2 | |
2 | 4 | Rough Quest | 10 | Mick Fitzgerald | Terry Casey | 12/1 |
3 | 19 | Couldn't Be Better | 9 | Graham Bradley | Charlie Brooks | 11/1 |
4 | 3 | Barton Bank | 10 | Tony McCoy | David Nicholson | 16/1 |
5 | nk | Young Hustler | 9 | Chris Maude | Nigel Twiston-Davies | 25/1 |
6 | 8 | One Man | 8 | Richard Dunwoody | Gordon W. Richards | 11/8 fav |
7 | 17 | King of the Gales | 9 | Charlie Swan | John Kiely (IRE) | 50/1 |
PU | Fence 21 | Dublin Flyer | 10 | Brendan Powell | Tim Forster | 5/1 |
PU | Fence 15 | Lord Relic | 10 | David Bridgwater | Martin Pipe | 100/1 |
Fell | Fence 6 | Monsieur Le Cure | 10 | Jason Titley | John Edwards | 14/1 |
* The distances between the horses are shown in lengths or shorter. nk = neck; PU = pulled-up.
† Trainers are based in Great Britain unless indicated.
Note: Fence 16 was omitted due to the fatal fall of Monsieur Le Cure on the first circuit.
Winner's details
Further details of the winner, Imperial Call:
- Foaled: February 21, 1989, in Ireland
- Sire: Callernish; Dam: Princess Menelek (Menelek)
- Owner: Lisselan Farms Ltd
- Breeder: Tom O'Donnell
References
- 1996
- sportinglife.com
- nytimes.com – "Fergie Sutherland finds a champion and becomes a hero" – March 15, 1996.