Live betting odds for the Festival's sentimental finale — 2m 4f 127y · Grade 3 · Conditional Jockeys' · New Course · Gold Cup Day
Compare the latest odds for the Martin Pipe Hurdle. The Festival's sentimental finale — updated regularly as Gold Cup Day on 13 March 2026 approaches.
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The Martin Pipe Corinthian Club Handicap Hurdle holds a special place in the hearts of everyone who loves the Cheltenham Festival. As the final race of four extraordinary days — the last race of the Festival — the Martin Pipe Hurdle carries an emotional weight that gives it a significance far beyond its Grade 3 status. It is the race that closes the curtain on the greatest week in jump racing.
Named in honour of Martin Pipe — the most successful jump racing trainer in British history, whose remarkable career transformed National Hunt racing through extraordinary attention to training methods, horse management and race planning — the Martin Pipe Hurdle is restricted to conditional jockeys (the apprentice riders of National Hunt racing). This gives tomorrow's stars of the saddle their chance to shine on the biggest stage in the sport.
Run over two miles, four furlongs and 127 yards on the New Course at Cheltenham, the Martin Pipe Hurdle demands a combination of stamina, jumping ability and race-riding craft from both horse and rider. The conditional jockey restriction means that tactical awareness and bold riding are particularly important — conditional riders who are confident in their abilities and willing to make bold decisions often deliver results that more cautious approaches would not.
The Mullins and Elliott yards have a strong Martin Pipe record, regularly supplying the winning conditional rider from their deep rosters of talented young jockeys. That said, British conditional jockeys who have ridden winners at the Festival during the same week carry significant confidence and course knowledge, and the race has produced winners from across the training spectrum.
Martin Pipe is widely regarded as the most revolutionary jump racing trainer in British history. Over a career spanning from the late 1970s to his retirement in 2006, Pipe transformed the sport through an approach to training that was, at the time, entirely radical.
Pipe's key innovation was the use of heart rate monitoring, interval training and meticulous attention to each horse's physical condition — methods borrowed from human athletics that had never been applied to racehorses at the professional level. His horses arrived at their target races demonstrably fitter than those from conventional yards, and the results were staggering: Pipe trained over 4,000 winners during his career, including 15 Champion Trainer titles.
His record at the Cheltenham Festival was extraordinary — he trained winners of the Champion Hurdle, the Stayers' Hurdle, the Supreme Novices' Hurdle and numerous other Festival races, with conditional jockeys regularly featuring in his success story as he gave young riders their chance on horses capable of winning at the highest level.
The race named in his honour — restricted to the conditional jockeys who represent the next generation — is a perfect tribute. Martin Pipe himself always gave opportunities to young riders, and the race that bears his name continues that tradition on the grandest possible stage, at the conclusion of the world's greatest jump racing festival.
When the runners leave the parade ring for the Martin Pipe Hurdle, the Cheltenham Festival is drawing to its close. The crowd — who have cheered 27 previous races across four extraordinary days — give the final field a reception that perfectly captures the warmth, passion and camaraderie that makes Cheltenham unique in world sport. Back the Festival winner, and raise a glass to another year of memories.