| The Punchestown Gold Cup, sponsored by | | | | 1968 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner) and 1970 |
| Guinness, is a Grade 1 conditions chase run over | | | | winner Glencaraig Lady, who won at Cheltenham |
| three miles and one furlong at the Punchestown | | | | in 1972. Imperial Call, the 1999 winner, had won |
| festival in April. It is considered to be the feature | | | | the Cheltenham Gold Cup three years earlier. |
| race of the five-day festival and is usually run on | | | | The only horses to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup |
| the second day. The 2010 race will be held on | | | | and the Punchestown Gold Cup in the same |
| Wednesday, April 21. | | | | season are Kicking King (2005) and War Of |
| Punchestown Gold Cup | | | | Attrition (2006). |
| Originally known as the Punchestown Heineken | | | | Punchestown, home of the Punchestown Gold |
| Gold Cup, the race was first run in 1960 when it | | | | Cup |
| was won by Oberstown. Arkle, regarded as the | | | | The first recorded race meeting was held at |
| best steeplechaser of all time, won in 1963 for | | | | Punchestown, County Kildare, in 1824 and the |
| trainer Tom Dreaper, who went on to establish | | | | right-handed course quickly became established as |
| the best record in the race by winning three of | | | | one of the premier jump racing tracks in Ireland, |
| the next four runnings, all with different horses. | | | | attracting crowds in excess of 100,000 by the |
| Dreaper's other winners were Fort Leney (1964), | | | | 1860s. Nowadays it is best known as the venue |
| Crown Prince (1966) and White Abbess (1967). | | | | for the five-day Punchestown festival in April, |
| Arkle went on to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup | | | | which is regarded as the Irish equivalent of the |
| (1964, 1965 and 1966) and so did Fort Leney (the | | | | Cheltenham Festival (held in March). |