The Kim Muir Challenge Cup is the final race on the penultimate day of the Cheltenham Festival in 2025.
This race is contested over three miles and two furlongs on the New Course, and is the only race at the Festival to involve only amateur riders. The stats and trends to consider when picking out selections for the Kim Muir Challenge Cup in 2025 can be found below.
Unlike many of the other handicaps at the Cheltenham Festival, there is a positive trend for runners on heavier weights in the Kim Muir. That is reflected by the stats that eleven of the last 12 winners have carried 11st or more.
That trend continued last year when top-weight Inothewayurthinkin won at odds of 13/8 for the Gavin Cromwell team.
It seems strange to suggest, but bettors shouldn’t be looking for horses with recent winning experience when assessing the Kim Muir field.
Only one of the last 12 winners of the race had won on their most recent start before contesting the Festival race. However, all but one of the winners since 2013 had lined up within the last 76 days.
Despite the fact that Inothewayurthinkin was a well-backed winner of the Kim Muir in 2024, the race hasn’t been a good race since 2013 for runners at the top of the market.
Only two horses have been winning favourites in the last 12 editions, while only half of the victors over the same period had been found within the top three of the betting. Inothewayurthinkin was the first winning favourite of the race since 2021.
The Kim Muir is one of the most gruelling races run at the Cheltenham Festival, meaning it is little surprise that ten of the last 12 winners have had at least one attempt over three miles and two.
Over the same period, five of the victors had recorded at least one victory over the stamina-sapping trip. Therefore, proven stayers should be respected in the field this year.
Chambard was the oldest winner of the race when aged ten since 2016 for the Venetia Williams team in 2022.
Ten of the last 12 winners of the race have been aged between six and eight, while seven-year-old’s deserve a lot of respect after recording six wins since 2013. Inothewayurthinkin was the first six-year-old winner of the race since Black Baize in 1971.
