Day 3 at the Cheltenham Festival is brought to a close by the Kim Muir Challenge Cup Handicap. 

The race takes place at 5:30pm on day three, which will take place on Thursday, 18th March in 2021.

The Kim Muir Challenge Cup was first run at the Cheltenham Festival in 1946. This handicap chase is open to horses of five-years-old and above, and lasts three-and-a-quarter miles.

The Kim Muir is only open to horses who’re rated no more than 145, and only amateur jockeys are allowed to ride in the race.

The race is named after Kim Muir, a Cavalry officer who died during World War Two. The name of Faulke Walwyn, legendary trainer of 40 winners at the Cheltenham Festival, is also associated with this staying handicap.

Two horses have managed to claim back-to-back victories in the Kim Muir. Chu-The was the first to successfully defend his title in 1968. His achievement was matched by Glyde Court, who won this race in 1985 and ’86.

Many horses go from the Kim Muir to the Grand National at Aintree. Nicolaus Silver is the only horse to achieve that famous double, winning at Cheltenham and Aintree in the spring of 1961.

In 2010, Ballabriggs won the Kim Muir, but it wasn’t until the following year, 2011 when he won the Aintree Grand National.

The most famous winner of the Kim Muir is Cool Ground, who won the Kim Muir in 1989. Cool Ground won the Welsh Grand National the following season, before winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1992.

Fred Rimmel is the winning-most trainer in the history of the Kim Muir, saddling four winners between 1951 and ’77.

Top Irish amateur jockey, Jamie Codd has ridden more winners than any other rider, with the most recent of his four wins coming on Cause Of Causes in 2016.

In 2020, Gordon Elliott celebrated his second victory in the Kim Muir, as Reece James guided the well-backed Milan Native to victory.