Run over three miles at Kempton Park, the King George VI Chase was inaugurated in February 1937 and named in honour of the new monarch, King George VI, who ascended the throne following the abdication of his brother, Edward VIII, the previous December. However, the King George VI Chase has been the Boxing Day highlight at the Sunbury-on-Thames course since 1947. Its roll of honour includes the likes of Arkle, Kauto Star, Mill House, Burrough Hill Lad and Long Run, all of whom feature in the top-ten highest-rated steeplechasers of the Timeform era.
In fact, the last-named won the King George VI Chase twice, in 2010 and 2012, and was ridden on both occasions by Sam Waley-Cohen who, at the time of writing, remains the only amateur jockey to win the race. Owned by his father, Robert, and trained by Nicky Henderson, Long Run comfortably won the hastily-arranged 2010 renewal, actually run on January 15, 2011, beating the odds-on favourite Kauto Star into third place. Three months later, again ridden by Waley-Cohen, he won the Cheltenham Gold Cup, beating Denman and Kauto Star, again, thereby making his jockey the first amateur since Jim Wilson, in 1981, to win the ‘Blue Riband’ event.
Waley-Cohen and Long Run returned to Kempton Park to win the King George VI Chase again in 2012, leading in the final strides to beat Captain Chris by a neck. In a ‘fairytale’ end to his riding career, having announced his retirement two days before the 2022 Grand National, Waley-Cohen won that race on another horse owned by his father, Noble Yeats. Thus, he retired not only as the only amateur jockey ever to win the King George VI Chase, but also the only amateur jockey ever to win both the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Grand National.
