2025 December Gold Cup Betting Trends

December 13, 2025
Andy Newton

The December Gold Cup is run over 2m5f at Cheltenham’s December Meeting each season around the middle of the month.

In recent years, trainer Paul Nicholls’ has won the prize five times, the most recent being Frodon in 2018. Nicky Henderson is another trainer to look out for - having won the race three times since 2002 – while in 2020, the race was won by the Michael Winters-trained Chatham Street Lad, who was only the third Irish-trained winner of the race in last 23 runnings.

It's also interesting that 26 of the last 27 winners were aged 8 or younger.

It’s generally, been a good contest for the bookmakers with just one winning favourite in the last 22 runnings (last winning market leader was in 2009), but that’s not to say those at the head of the market don’t do well as 14 of the last 22 winners returned 9/1 or shorter in the betting – while three of the last 11 December Gold Cup winners returned 7/1.

Here at GEEGEEZ we take a look back at recent winners and give you all the trends that matter ahead of the 2025 renewal - Saturday 13th December.

Recent Decmeber Gold Cup Winners

2024 - Gemirande (11/2)
2023 - Fugitif (13/2)
2022 – No Race
2021 – Coole Cody (12/1)
2020 - Chatham Street Lad (16/1)
2019 – Warthog (7/1)
2018 – Frodon (7/1)
2017 – Guitar Pete (9/1)
2016 – Frodon (14/1)
2015 – Village Vic (8/1)
2014 – Niceonefrankie (16/1)
2013 – Double Ross (7/1)
2012 – Unioniste (15/2)
2011 – Quantitativeeasing (6/1)
2010 – Poquelin (16/1)
2009 – Poquelin (7/2 fav)
2008 – Abandoned
2007 – Tamarinbleu (22/1)
2006 – Exotic Dancer (8/1)
2005 – Sir Oj (16/1)
2004 – Monkerhostin (4/1)
2003 – Iris Royal (7/1)
2002 – Fondmort (5/1)
2001 – Abandoned
2000 – Go Roger Go (7/1)

December Gold Cup Betting Trends

21/22 – Aged 8 or younger
20/22 – Ran within the last 6 weeks
18/22 – Had won over at least 2m4f (fences) before
17/22 – Had won between 2-4 times over fences before
16/22 – Placed in the top 3 last time out
16/22 - Went onto run at the Cheltenham Festival later that season (2 winners, Frodon – Ryanair Chase and Coole Cody – Plate)
16/22 – Had raced at Cheltenham (fences) before (6 won)
15/22 – Returned 9/1 or shorter in the betting
14/22 – Officially rated 141 or higher
13/22 – Unplaced favourites
13/22 – French bred
12/22 – Aged 6 or 7 years-old
10/22 – Carried 10-12 or more
10/22 – Ran at Cheltenham last time out
10/22 – Ran in the Paddy Power (Nov) Gold Cup last time out (1 won)
7/22 – Finished in the top 5 in the Paddy Power Gold Cup last time out
6/22 – Won last time out
5/22 – Trained by Paul Nicholls
3/22 – Trained by Nicky Henderson
3/22 – Went to an Irish-trained horse
2/22 – Trained by David Pipe
2/22 – Ridden by Sam Twiston-Davies
1/22 – Winning favourites
10 of the last 13 winners carried 10-12 or less
The average winning SP in the last 22 runnings is 10/1