prestbury cup is the annual tally at the Cheltenham Festival that records whether trainers from Great Britain or the Republic of Ireland have prepared the most winners across the meeting — and 2026 delivered one of the tightest editions on record.
What does the 2026 result reveal about the competition?
The Prestbury Cup was decided by a two-win margin in 2026, with the Republic of Ireland finishing 15-13 ahead of Great Britain after the final race of the meeting. Henry De Bromhead’s Air Of Entitlement sealed that outcome in the last race, a victory that prevented Great Britain from forcing a 14-14 draw. The narrow score contrasts with recent larger Irish margins: Ireland’s 23-5 win in 2021 remains the biggest, and the 2025 meeting ended 20-8 in Ireland’s favour with an 8-0 final day that included a Gold Cup success.
The mechanics of the competition are straightforward: with 28 races at a full festival, 15 winners are enough to secure the trophy; the 2024 meeting was an exception when the card was reduced to 27 races.
How stable is the Prestbury Cup balance?
The Prestbury Cup was first staged in 2014. British trainers dominated the early years with five consecutive wins from the inception through 2018, and the contest produced a 14-14 draw in 2019. Since that draw, Irish trainers have established a sustained run of success, winning the trophy in seven consecutive festivals through 2026. That sequence has been driven in part by the repeated impact of one leading Irish trainer, who is recorded as a multiple-time leading trainer at the Cheltenham Festival.
- 2018 – Great Britain 17-11 Republic of Ireland
- 2019 – Great Britain 14-14 Republic of Ireland
- 2020 – Great Britain 10-17 Republic of Ireland
- 2021 – Great Britain 5-23 Republic of Ireland
- 2022 – Great Britain 10-18 Republic of Ireland
- 2023 – Great Britain 10-18 Republic of Ireland
- 2024 – Great Britain 9-18 Republic of Ireland (reduced to 27 races)
- 2025 – Great Britain 8-20 Republic of Ireland
- 2026 – Great Britain 13-15 Republic of Ireland
What happens next for the Prestbury Cup and its contenders?
The 2026 meeting underlined both the depth of Irish success across the card and the capacity of Great Britain to mount a close challenge. Irish trainers provided multiple headline winners during the week — including combinations that produced several significant victories — while British-trained winners kept the contest tight enough to come down to the final race. The history of the contest shows sharp swings in margin: dominant Irish clean-sheets on closing days have coexisted with close finishes and a draw in 2019.
For followers and participants, the immediate takeaways are clear and bounded by the facts at hand: the Prestbury Cup remains a concise measure of national trainer performance across the festival; 15 winners still represents the threshold in a full 28-race card; and small shifts on a single day can reverse perceived dominance. Expect future editions to be contested with equal intensity, and for trainers and connections to recognise how a final-race outcome can decide the overall tally of the Prestbury Cup
