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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
  • 1996
  • sportinglife.com
  • nytimes.com – ""Fergie Sutherland finds a champion and becomes a hero"" – March 15, 1996.
Simon Milham