Is The 2025 Imperial Cup Cheltenham Bonus Still Offered?

Does The 2025 Imperial Cup Hurdle Still Have The £100k Cheltenham Festival Bonus?

Updated –Mar 8, 2025

We publish independently audited content meeting strict editorial standards. Ads on our site are served by Google AdSense and are not controlled or influenced by our editorial team.

This Saturday’s Imperial Cup Handicap Hurdle is the last big race before the Cheltenham Festival and over the years the 2m contest has been given more airtime due to having a £100,000 Imperial Cup bonus – should the winner go onto land ANY race at the Festival the following week.

Is The Imperial Cup Cheltenham Bonus Still In Place?

The Imperial Cup bonus has been in place – on and off – since 1992, which gives the winning connections the added carrot of grabbing more cash should the winner go onto land ANY Cheltenham Festival race that same season.

With the Imperial Cup run on the Saturday before the Festival, this gives the winner little turn-a-round time to try and land the bonus – less than a week depending on what race they might turn up in at Cheltenham.

However, with £51,440 on offer to the winner of the Imperial Cup, the bonus is almost double – which is why there is a good chance the 2025 winner will be in action the following week at the biggest jumps meeting on the planet.

The good news for owners looking to have a runner in the 2025 Imperial Cup is that the bonus (thanks to the sponsors Betfair) is again in place.

The 2025 Imperial Cup Bonus Is £100k

This Imperial Cup Cheltenham bonus stands at £100,000 on top of the £50k for going onto land ANY Cheltenham Festival race.

The last two winners, however, Go Dante and Iceo have bypassed the Festival.

Go Dante beat the 2023 County Hurdle winner Faivoir by a nose, with the Skelton-trained runner-up going onto run 6th in the 2024 County.

But the 2022 winner Surprise Package went onto run 6th in State Man’s County Hurdle.

In 2016 Flying Angel was another past Imperial Cup winner to go close to taking the bonus – running second in the Martin Pipe.

Back in 2016 the Imperial Cup bonus wasn’t in place, but it returned in 2017 when that year’s sponsors Matchbook offered it at £50k and increased it back to £100k in 2018 – where it’s remained since.

Last year’s winner Go Dante holds an entry in 2025 too – he’ll be looking to become the first back-to-back winner since High Point in 1952/53 and is around 8/1 with the best horse racing betting sites in the UK.

Have Any Imperial Cup Winners Gone Onto Land The Cheltenham Bonus?

Yes, but not many.

In 2021, Langer Dan almost scooped the Imperial Cup Cheltenham bonus after winning at Sandown and then running second to one of this year’s Cheltenham Festival bankers Galopin Des Champs in the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle.

However, before Langer Dan you have to go back to the David Pipe-trained Gaspara in 2007 to find the last horse to do the double. He went onto land the Fred Winter by an easy 5 lengths.

Then prior to Gaspara, it was the Pipe team again – this time with Martin at the helm – when Blowing Wind in 1998 went onto take the County Hurdle.

While the first horse to land the Imperial Cup Cheltenham bonus was Olympian in 1993, who was also trained by Martin Pipe and went onto take the Coral Cup (watch below).