Tingle Creek Chase – Most successful jockeys

A number of jockeys have had tremendous success in this race at the iconic Sandown Racecourse over the years.

Several eye catching race meetings are taking place at a whole host of iconic racecourses up and down the country over the next few weeks and months, and one of them is the Betfair Tingle Creek Festival at Sandown. This meeting captures the attention of horse racing fans across the globe. Two days of enthralling action begins on Friday, 8th December, before it comes to an end on Saturday, 9th December 2023.

Anticipation for this event is building rapidly, with little more than two weeks to go until the Festival gets underway with the Daily Tips on Betting.Betfair Juvenile Hurdle Race on Friday afternoon (12:40pm).

13 races occur during the race meeting, as will be the case in 2023’s event. There are a number of fascinating and enthralling races to come, but the race that perhaps catches the eye the most is the Tingle Creek Chase, which takes place on Saturday, 9th December 2023, at 3pm.

The Tingle Creek Chase has a great history, with it taking place for the first time in 1979. It was initially called the Benson & Hedges Gold Cup. It was named after Tingle Creek, one of the most popular horses in the National Hunt races in the 1970s.

The first winner was Artifice, ridden by jockey Richard Hoare and trained by John Thorne. This would be the only win that Hoare and Thorne would get in this race. News King would then become the first horse to win this race on more than one occasion. The first win came in 1981, with the second coming a year later in 1982.

Initially staged as a handicap race, the Tingle Creek Chase became a Grade 1 Chase in 1994.

Throughout this race’s history, the winners of the chase often target a place in the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the even more prestigious Cheltenham Festival.

Nine of the last twelve winners of the Tingle Creek Chase have taken part, with four winning the Queen Mother Champion Chase off the back of their victory at Sandown. They are: Sprinter Sacre (2013 & 2016), Sire De Grugy (2014), Dodging Bullets (2015) and Altior (2018 & 2019).

Some of these horses were ridden by jockeys who have enjoyed great success in the Tingle Creek Chase over the years. Here, we will go through the jockeys with the most wins, starting some of those with one win in this race at the time of writing.

4 – Tom Cannon, Bryony Frost, Harry Skelton, Nico de Boinville, Harry Cobden, Sam Twiston-Davies, Andrew Lynch, Noel Fehily, Tony McCoy, Sam Thomas, Mick Fitzgerald, Robert Widger & Richard Johnson: 1 Win

Here, we acknowledge that a plethora of jockeys have had at least one win in the Tingle Creek Chase over the years, so we are just going to talk about those who have got their solitary win in this race in the 21st Century.

Tom Cannon is the most recent winner, riding Edwardstone to victory in the 2022 edition of this race after fending off competition from Harry Cobden’s Greaneteen and Nico de Boinville’s Shishkin in second and third place, respectively.

Greaneteen had had better luck the year before in 2021, with the jockey this time being Bryony Frost. Frost was able to beat Hitman and Captain Guinness to the win at Sandown that year.

In 2020, Harry Skelton experienced success in the Tingle Creek Chase that year riding Politologue, finishing ahead of the likes of Greaneteen (ridden by Harry Cobden) and Rouge Vif (ridden by Gavin Sheehan).

Nico De Boinville won his sole Tingle Creek Chase on board Altior in 2018, whilst Harry Cobden (riding Politologue) and Sam Twiston-Davies (riding Dodging Bullets) also doing so in 2017 and 2014 respectively.

A few years before Twiston-Davies’ win, Andrew Lynch won the 2011 edition of this race whilst riding Sizing Europe. Noel Fehily and Tony McCoy had won, both riding Master Minded, in 2010 and 2008, respectively.

Sam Thomas enjoyed what is currently his solitary win in the Tingle Creek Chase, which came back in 2007 when he tasted victory on board Twist Magic. This came two years after Mick Fitzgerald won this race for the only time riding Kauto Star in 2005.

Finally, Robert Widger and Richard Johnson both won riding Flagship Uberalles in 2001 and 2000, respectively.

3 – Jamie Moore, Brendan Powell & John Francome: 2 Wins

Just three jockeys have won the Tingle Creek Chase in the history of this race. Firstly, Jamie Moore clinched his maiden win in 2013 before tasting glory again two years later in 2015. Both of Moore’s wins came from riding Sire De Grugy in both races.

Moving on to Brendan Powell, we got back to the 1980s. He won both races on board Long Engagement, who he led to victory in both 1987 and 1989.

Finally, we go further back in time for John Francome’s two wins. Francome rode News King to become the first to win the Tingle Creek Chase in consecutive years, winning in 1981 and 1982.

2 – Barry Geraghty, Ruby Walsh: 4 Wins

We now move on to the two jockeys with four wins in the Tingle Creek Chase. Ruby Walsh was the first jockey to win this race on four occasions, doing just that in 2002 (riding Cenkos), 2006 (riding Kauto Star), 2009 (riding Twist Magic) and 2016 (riding Un de Sceaux).

Barry Geraghty is the only other jockey to have four victories in this race during his career. Following his maiden triumph with Moscow Flyer in 2003, he won again with the same horse a year later in 2004. His other two victories came with Sprinter Sacre (2012) and Defi Du Seuil (2019).

1 – Richard Dunwoody: 5 Wins

Only one jockey in the entire history of the Tingle Creek Chase can boast no less than five victories in this race in their career, and that jockey goes by the name of Richard Dunwoody. Dunwoody is a Cheltenham Gold Cup and a two time winner of the iconic Grand National.

He won the Tingle Creek Chase no less than five times in his highly illustrious career, winning the race for the first time when riding Lefrak City in 1985. The four other wins came in 1991 (riding Waterloo Boy), 1992 (riding Waterloo Boy), 1995 (riding Sound Man) and 1996 (riding Sound Man).

Anticipation continues to build ahead of the 2023 Tingle Creek Festival getting underway at the iconic and historic Sandown Racecourse on Friday, 8th November 2023.

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