The Champion Bumper is a Grade 1 Flat race for horses aged four to six years. It is run on the Old Course at Cheltenham over a distance of 2 miles.

The event was established in 1992, and it was initially called the Festival Bumper but has since become known as the Weatherby’s Champion Bumper.

The Irish trainer Willie Mullins has an amazing 6 wins in this race and the Irish horses usually land some decent gambles in this race.

However in the last 5 years we can see outsiders that go un-noticed and can land the race at huge odds.

There is usually a small amount of form to go on in the Bumper and the best approach is to start looking at horses running from 6 weeks to the festival as yards will be getting the best hopes fresh for this race right about then.

The market movers from 6 weeks before the festival should be checked to highlight any gambles appearing.

Some stats that we may find useful in this race.

It is worth looking at an Irish trained, 5 or 6 year old near the front of the betting in this race.

Horses that have won last time out are a clear requirement when selecting a bet.

Your selection ideally should have run at least 3 times in bumpers, and have won at least one bumper race with 14 or more runners.

While outsiders do win the main focus of your selections should be around the odds of 14/1 and below.

The first winner of the Champion Bumper was Montelado, who achieved in effect the Cheltenham double by winning two consecutive races at the festival – the Bumper was originally the last race of the Festival. And he came back and won the Supreme Novices Hurdle the next season.

Richard Dunwoody rode Montelado (1992) and Florida Pearl (1997) to win the Bumper on 2 occasions along with Charlie Swan and Paul Carberry they are the leading jockeys in this event.

Check back soon for our best bet in this event