Castleford Chase 2023

Run during the Christmas fixture at Wetherby Racecourse, the Castleford Chase is a valuable handicap chase event taking in thirteen fences during a relatively short race distance of one mile, seven furlongs.

While still an extremely popular event especially to Yorkshire racing folk, in terms of its stature on the overall National Hunt scene the Castleford Chase has gradually declined over the years. Upgraded to Grade One status in 1990, it was downgraded to a Grade Two limited handicap in 1998 and finally to a Class 2 handicap in 2006.

While this has meant the prowess of recent winners isn’t as strong, the overall list of Castleford Chase scorers still reads impressively with the likes of Tingle Creek, Badsworth Boy, Viking Flagship (twice) and Turgenev having all taken this race since 1975. Viking Flagship in fact was a dual winner of the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.