Irish Gold Cup Preview, Tips, Runners & Trends (Dublin Racing Festival)

2025 Irish Gold Cup Preview

The highlight of the Dublin Racing Festival at the Leopardstown racecourse is the Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup, a Grade 1 featuring some of the best Irish chasers. The race is run over three miles in which these powerhouses will have to contend with seventeen fences on their way to being crowned champion.

The race is usually a good trial for the Cheltenham Gold Cup, 2017 winner Sizing John won this race and then went on to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup adding his name to the list of those who have won both, including Jodami (1993) & Imperial Call (1996).

Irish Gold Cup Information:

• Irish Gold Cup Past Winners
• Irish Gold Cup Trainer Statistics
• Irish Gold Cup Jockey Statistics

Why not use the trends shortlist below to help you narrow down the field and then head over to the dedicated Leopardstown tips page to see which runners are being supported by the OLBG expert racing tipsters to find yourself a bet? You may also be interested in other preview blogs that we have packed full of information, head down to the Races Covered during the Dublin Racing Festival section for links to these.

How competitive is the Irish Gold Cup market? When looking at the over-rounds for the last 20 renewals, the most competitive market was in 2007 when the race had an over-round of 109%. The race in 2016 was a race that was most in the bookie's favour with an over-round of 123%, whilst on average over the last 20 renewals of the Irish Gold Cup, the over-round has been 115%, which means the bookie expects to pay out £100 for every £115 which is bet.

Irish Gold Cup Trends:

• 2025 Irish Gold Cup Trends
• Irish Gold Cup Trend Analysis

Looking at the future form, is the winner worth following next time out? From the past 20 if you had followed the winner of the Irish Gold Cup next time out then you would have backed a total of 2 winners. Backing all 19 runners who have been out since to win at SP next time out, would have returned an LSP of -8.60. Before placing your bet on the 2025 Irish Gold Cup see which other runners today are being backed on the racing predictions page.

Over the last 20 renewals, it was the W P Mullins trained Bellshill ridden by R Walsh who set the fastest winning time in the Irish Gold Cup, the runner won the race in a time of 6:06.70 was set when winning the race in 2019. At the other end of the scale, it was the combination of trainer Paul Nolan and jockey Alain Cawley with Joncol who set the slowest winning time, the race-winning time was 6:41.50 in the 2010 renewal.

These are the top three quickest-run Irish Gold Cup over the last 20 renewals:

1. Bellshill (6:06.70) in 2019
2. Galopin Des Champs (6:14.10) in 2023
3. Conflated (6:20.40) in 2022

Irish Gold Cup Past Winners

Here are the Irish Gold Cup past winners for the last 10 renewals. Each row details the year of the race, the horse which won along with the age & weight of the horse. The trainer of the horse at the time of winning the Irish Gold Cup as well as the jockey is also displayed along with the starting price the horse was sent off.

Where have the winning runners come from?

Here are the countries where the winning trainers of the Irish Gold Cup have been based:

• IRE: 18 winners with an additional 21 placings from 123 runners
• GB: 2 winners with an additional 3 placings from 15 runners

Irish Gold Cup Trainer Statistics

The leading trainer in the Irish Gold Cup over the last 20 renewals is W P Mullins who has won the race eight times with those eight winners coming from Rule Supreme (2005), Kempes (2011), Quel Esprit (2012), Sir Des Champs (2013), Bellshill (2019), Kemboy (2021) and Galopin Des Champs (2023 & 2024). Other trainers who have recorded multiple wins in the Irish Gold Cup are Gordon Elliott (2 wins), Michael Hourigan (2 wins) and John E Kiely (2 wins).

Here are some of the top Irish Gold Cup trainer statistics over the last 20 renewals (R = Runners, W = Winners, P = Places including winners, Win LSP is based on 1pt Win and EW LSP is based on 0.5pt Win & 0.5pt Place):

Irish Gold Cup Jockey Statistics

The leading jockey in the Irish Gold Cup over the last 20 renewals is Paul Townend who has won the race two times with those two winners coming from Galopin Des Champs (2023 & 2024).

Here are some of the top Irish Gold Cup jockey statistics over the last 20 renewals (R = Runners, W = Winners, P = Places including winners, Win LSP is based on 1pt Win and EW LSP is based on 0.5pt Win & 0.5pt Place):

2025 Irish Gold Cup Trends

Favourites finishing positions (oldest to latest): 2, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 3, 1, 2, 3, 6, 2, 3, 4, 2, 2, 4, 4, 1, 1

The percentage shown is the percentage of the total number of runners who fell under that factor. High percentages are less appealing than lower ones as you would expect them to do well.

• 20 / 20 (75%) - Made 1 - 12 starts (Jockey)
• 20 / 20 (83%) - Not in a LST/Cl2-3 (Last Win)
• 20 / 20 (83%) - Ran in Ireland (Last Win)
• 20 / 20 (83%) - In a field of 4 - 13 (Last Win)
• 20 / 20 (85%) - Won within last 6 starts
• 20 / 20 (86%) - Ran over 2m2f - 3m1f (Last Win)
• 20 / 20 (87%) - In a field of 5 - 14 (LTO)
• 20 / 20 (88%) - Furthest Won 2m4f - 3m2½f
• 20 / 20 (88%) - Ran in Ireland (LTO)
• 20 / 20 (89%) - No bigger than 12/1 (Last Win)
• 20 / 20 (89%) - Achieved an RPR of 151+ (Last 3)
• 20 / 20 (89%) - Achieved an RPR of 154+ (Last 5)
• 20 / 20 (89%) - Achieved a TS of 104+ (Last 5)
• 20 / 20 (89%) - Not in a LST/Cl2-3 (LTO)
• 19 / 20 (62%) - No bigger than 9/1 (LTO)

Remember to use the trends listed above along with the Leopardstown racing predictions to see if you can find the winner of the Irish Gold Cup. How well do you know your horse racing? Are there certain types of races that you are unsure of? Why not take a look at this Types Of Horse Race article to familiarise yourself with the different types of racing, that is just one of many helpful horse racing articles in the OLBG Betting School.

Are you already a member? If not, then why not? With over £6,000 given away each month in the tipster competition, why not get involved? Remember, It is completely FREE! So, head over to the registration page to sign up today! If you are already a member, then share your thoughts on the Irish Gold Cup by adding a tip on the race here.

Irish Gold Cup Trend Analysis

The trend factor which had produced 10+ winners and shows the best LSP, an LSP of +47.13 is when runners carried 164lbs when last winning. The worst performing factor that has failed to produce a single winner is when runners had 6 career wins, when backing these the trend shows a record of 0-21.

The course which has produced the most winners of the Irish Gold Cup is Leopardstown, there has been a total number of 15 winners of this race who ran at Leopardstown last time out. The next best course which has produced the second most winners is Thurles, there has been a total number of 3 winners of this race who ran at Thurles last time out.

The race is open to both sexes with the Male runners having produced a total of 20 winners from a total of 137 runners whilst the Female runners have produced 0 winners from a total of 1 runner.

Looking over the past renewals, these are the stallions whose offspring have produced multiple winners of the Irish Gold Cup:

• Kings Theatre (3 Wins)
• Cajetano (2 Wins)
• Timos (2 Wins)

These are the stallions whose offspring have not produced a winner of the Irish Gold Cup despite multiple attempts:

• Presenting (0 Wins from 8 runners)
• Flemensfirth (0 Wins from 5 runners)
• Old Vic (0 Wins from 5 runners)

Looking at the winning odds over the last 20 renewals, the biggest-priced winner was Edwulf in 2018, winning for Joseph Patrick O'Brien at odds of 33/1 under the guidance of Mr Derek O'Connor. Looking at the runners at the head of the market over the last 20 renewals there have been 7 winning favourites in the race. Remember to bookmark the best racing tipsters page so you can get easy access to the best OLBG racing tipsters.

Races Covered during the Dublin Racing Festival

Remember to head over to the Leopardstown predictions page to see which runner the racing tipsters are supporting in the Irish Gold Cup and don't forget we also cover the following races at the Dublin Racing Festival.

Article Contributor Information

We are blessed with an excellent team of specialists and experts at OLBG. Contributing to creating and maintaining this Irish Gold Cup Preview are at hand, Andy Powell and Darren Brett. They both work on the Horse racing tips team team looking after the tipsters and managing the tips settlement, whilst also creating and managing all of the horse racing event previews.

Darren Brett

Tipster competition manager

A seasoned veteran in the industry, Darren's profound knowledge and unparalleled expertise in horse racing truly come to the fore during the National Hunt season. In addition to his contribution to our Horse racing previews here on OLBG, he also holds the reins for grand-national-guide.co.uk

Andy Powell

Content editor

Andy has one of the greatest horse racing results and ratings databases known to man, all of his own creation. with 20 years of collating and following form, ratings and trends, he adds another layer of knowledge to our race previews.