Hilly Way Chase Day at Cork: The Complete Guide

The Hilly Way Chase is a Grade 2 National Hunt steeplechase run over 2 miles 160 yards, roughly two miles and half a furlong (about 3,365 metres), at Cork Racecourse Mallow. It is open to horses aged five and older and is staged each December, early enough in the Irish jumps season to catch the leading two-milers on their first or second run of the campaign. The trip and the standard suit sharp, fast-jumping chasers rather than out-and-out stayers, which is what has given the race its identity as a Champion Chase pointer.

Cork's chase course is a fair, galloping right-handed oval of about a mile and a half, with eight fences to a circuit including two open ditches. The sandy, well-drained soil drains quickly, so the ground rarely rides truly heavy even in December, and the flat, level terrain rewards prominent, pace-holding types. Those track characteristics matter for the Hilly Way: it is a test of jumping fluency and cruising speed more than a slog through mud.

The prize fund has grown into one of the more valuable domestic two-mile chases in Ireland. The 2025 renewal was worth 100,000 euro, with 60,000 euro to the winner, 20,000 euro for second and 10,000 euro for third. Sponsorship has changed hands over the years: the Kerry Group backed the race for a long spell, and Bar One Racing took over the title in 2022, with the race carrying the firm's betting branding by 2025.

Detail	The Hilly Way Chase
Grade	Grade 2
Discipline	National Hunt steeplechase
Distance	2m 160yds (about 3,365 m)
Eligibility	Five years and older
Month	December
Course	Cork (Mallow), right-handed
First run	2001 (as Grade 3)
Grade 2 status	2003
2025 prize fund	100,000 euro (60,000 euro to the winner)
Recent sponsor	Bar One Racing

The figures above trace to the most recent renewals on record. Because the meeting runs in December and the current racing year has not yet reached that point, the date of the next running follows the official Horse Racing Ireland fixture list rather than any fixed calendar day. The grade, distance and conditions have held steady since the 2003 upgrade, so the framework of the race is stable from one year to the next even as the sponsor branding and prize money move.

The Hilly Way Chase was first run in 2001 as a Grade 3 event and was awarded Grade 2 status in 2003, only its third year. That quick promotion tells its own story: the race filled a clear gap in the early-season programme, giving Ireland's leading two-mile chasers a valuable target before Christmas, and the quality of runner it attracted justified the higher grade almost at once.

Its name honours Hilly Way, the dual Queen Mother Champion Chase winner of 1978 and 1979. Naming a December two-miler after a horse of that stamp fixed the character of the contest from the start. This was always meant to be a race for the sharp, quick chaser rather than the staying handicapper, and the roll of honour has stayed true to that intent.

Beef Or Salmon set the early tone by winning the first runnings that are firmly on record, in 2002 and 2003 for the Limerick trainer Michael Hourigan. His 2002 success came on just his second start over fences, an early marker of the ability that would carry him to ten Grade 1 wins. He remains the only horse to have landed both the John Durkan Memorial Chase and the Hilly Way, linking two of the Irish season's better early chases.

Weather has twice forced the race away from Mallow. In 2010 a frozen chase course meant the running was staged at Fairyhouse over 2 miles 1 furlong, and in 2015 it was moved to Navan. On both occasions the race kept its identity and its place in the calendar, and both winners, Golden Silver in 2010 and Felix Yonger in 2015, are counted in the roll of honour.

Sponsorship has evolved alongside the prize money. The Kerry Group backed the race through much of its history, lending it a strong regional identity in Munster, before Bar One Racing took over the title in 2022. Under the bookmaker's banner the race has become a six-figure contest, with the 2025 renewal worth 100,000 euro. Through all those changes the essentials have held firm since 2003: a Grade 2 two-miler in December, run at a galloping track that suits a bold, accurate jumper, and pitched squarely at the horses aiming for the Queen Mother Champion Chase in the spring.

The Hilly Way Chase belongs, more than almost any Irish race, to one yard. Willie Mullins is the leading trainer, with somewhere between 13 and 16 wins depending on the record you read, comfortably the most of any trainer, and Paul Townend is the leading jockey with nine. That dominance is not a recent trend. Mullins horses have taken the race across two decades, and in the 2024 renewal he saddled the first four home. Two horses have won it three times, and both were trained by Mullins: Golden Silver in 2009, 2010 and 2011, and Energumene in 2021, 2022 and 2024.

Year	Winner	Trainer	Jockey
2025	Found A Fifty	Gordon Elliott	Jack Kennedy
2024	Energumene	Willie Mullins	Paul Townend
2023	El Fabiolo	Willie Mullins	Paul Townend
2022	Energumene	Willie Mullins	Paul Townend
2021	Energumene	Willie Mullins	Sean O'Keeffe
2020	Chacun Pour Soi	Willie Mullins	Paul Townend
2019	Cilaos Emery	Willie Mullins	n/a
2018	Castlegrace Paddy	Pat Fahy	Paul Townend
2017	Un De Sceaux	Willie Mullins	n/a
2016	Douvan	Willie Mullins	Paul Townend
2015	Felix Yonger	Willie Mullins	n/a
2014	Felix Yonger	Willie Mullins	n/a
2013	Twinlight	Willie Mullins	Paul Townend
2012	Days Hotel	Henry de Bromhead	n/a
2011	Golden Silver	Willie Mullins	n/a
2010	Golden Silver	Willie Mullins	Paul Townend
2009	Golden Silver	Willie Mullins	Paul Townend
2008	Scotsirish	Willie Mullins	n/a
2007	Our Ben	Willie Mullins	n/a
2003	Beef Or Salmon	Michael Hourigan	n/a
2002	Beef Or Salmon	Michael Hourigan	n/a

The 2010 running was staged at Fairyhouse over 2 miles 1 furlong after Cork's chase course froze, and the 2015 running was moved to Navan for the same reason. Winners for 2001, 2004, 2005 and 2006, and the riders for several of the earlier years, are not settled here and have been left out rather than guessed at.

Golden Silver was the first three-time winner and the horse who first showed what the race could mean to the Mullins operation. Beyond the Hilly Way he was a Grade 1 performer, taking the Irish Arkle in 2009 and the Punchestown Champion Chase in 2010, with Paul Townend aboard for the first two of his three Cork wins.

Energumene then matched the record. The French-bred gelding, owned by Tony Bloom and trained by Mullins, won in 2021, 2022 and 2024. He did not run in 2023, when his stablemate El Fabiolo took the race, and he missed the whole of the intervening core season through injury. His 2024 win came after a 593-day absence, when he was left clear at the last and scored by ten lengths. Both his earlier Hilly Way wins launched campaigns that ended in Queen Mother Champion Chase glory, which he landed at Cheltenham in 2022 and 2023.

Other winners underline the quality of the field the race attracts. Beef Or Salmon, Douvan, Un De Sceaux, Chacun Pour Soi, Cilaos Emery and El Fabiolo all took the Hilly Way and all were top-class chasers. Douvan's 2016 win came by twenty-two lengths, one of the most spectacular displays of his career, and he was sent off at 1/6. Chacun Pour Soi coasted home by nineteen lengths in 2020 as the 1/5 favourite.

The 2025 renewal broke the pattern. Gordon Elliott's Found A Fifty, a 3/1 chance ridden by Jack Kennedy, wore down the favourite Majborough to win by a length and a half, ending a run of six straight Mullins victories and denying Energumene, who finished third, a fourth win. It was a reminder that even at a race this dominated by one yard, the result is never a formality.

Before any of the patterns below, the single most important line for this section. Backing favourites loses money to Starting Price over time, at Cork as at every other course. Everything here is descriptive context about how the Hilly Way and the Cork track tend to play. None of it is a system, and none of it implies a way to bet the race for profit.

The market runs short, and short does not mean safe. The Hilly Way regularly attracts odds-on and near odds-on favourites, because the best two-milers turn up and the strongest of them are often clear on form. Douvan won at 1/6 in 2016, Chacun Pour Soi at 1/5 in 2020, El Fabiolo at 1/5 in 2023 and Energumene at 1/3 in 2021. Those horses obliged. The 2025 running showed the other side of it: the favourite Majborough was worn down by the 3/1 chance Found A Fifty, and the favourite backer lost. A short price reflects strong form, not a guarantee, and over a long run of races backing every favourite still hands money to the layer.

The track suits prominent, fluent jumpers. Cork's chase course is a flat, galloping right-handed oval of about a mile and a half, with eight fences to a circuit including two open ditches. The level terrain makes it hard for hold-up horses to make up ground, so pace-holding types that jump accurately and travel handily are favoured. That is a description of the horse the track tends to reward, not a route to a profitable bet.

Going rarely gets extreme. The sandy, well-drained soil takes water quickly, so even in December the Hilly Way seldom rides truly heavy. That keeps the emphasis on speed and jumping over stamina, which fits the two-mile trip and the type of chaser the race attracts.

One yard, described not recommended. Willie Mullins and Paul Townend have a record in this race with few equals, as the roll of honour sets out, and the leading Irish yards use the day as a trial. That is a statement of who has won, not a tip on who will.

Descriptive pattern	What the record shows
Market shape	Frequent odds-on favourites; short prices win often but not always
Track type	Flat, galloping, right-handed; suits prominent, accurate jumpers
Going	Free-draining, rarely truly heavy even in winter
Draw	Not applicable, jumps race

Treat all of the above as background reading rather than a route to a profit. Betting should be for entertainment, with only money you can afford to lose, and never chased. If it stops being fun, take a break. Help is available in Ireland and the UK through GambleAware and similar services.

The Hilly Way sits early in the Irish National Hunt season and works as the first real staging post on the two-mile chasing trail that runs through the winter to Cheltenham and Punchestown in the spring. It is a seasonal reappearance for the top two-milers, a chance to get a clean round of fences into a horse in graded company before the bigger targets after Christmas. That is the role it has filled since its 2003 upgrade, and it is why the race is so closely tied to the Queen Mother Champion Chase.

The link to Cheltenham's two-mile championship is more than a slogan. Trends data drawn from recent runnings shows that eight of twelve recent winners went on to run in the Queen Mother Champion Chase that same season. Energumene made the connection explicit: his Hilly Way wins in 2021 and 2022 both launched campaigns that finished with Champion Chase victory at Cheltenham. Willie Mullins has spoken of using the Cork race as a springboard, giving his best two-milers a two-mile prep at home rather than sending them straight to Christmas targets.

From the Hilly Way, the road usually leads to the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown in early February, where the Irish Champion Chase provides the next graded test, and on to the Cheltenham Festival in March and the Punchestown Festival in late April. A horse can take in the Hilly Way, then a Grade 1 over Christmas or at the Dublin Racing Festival, then the Champion Chase, and finally Punchestown, and several of the race's winners have followed close to that exact path.

The race also anchors Cork's own December card. It is the marquee event on an afternoon that usually carries strong supporting graded races. In 2024 the card also featured the Grade 2 Coolmore N.H. Sires Order of St George Irish EBF Mares Novice Chase and a Grade 3 stayers' novice hurdle, giving the day real depth beyond the feature. Cork's Grade 3 stayers' novice hurdle over three miles is part of the same winter jumps programme at the track.

It is worth keeping the Hilly Way distinct from Cork's other big jumps day. The Cork National, run in early November as a Listed handicap chase over three miles and four furlongs, is a staying test and a very different race, and it should not be confused with the two-mile Hilly Way that follows a month later. For the season as a whole, and for the other feature races and festivals at the track, the Cork Racecourse Complete Guide sets out the full calendar. For how the race tends to play in the market, see the betting section above.

The Hilly Way Chase is one of Cork's big days for television coverage. Irish racing is broadcast domestically through Racing TV, part of Racecourse Media Group, and the bigger Cork fixtures such as the Hilly Way have also been shown on RTÉ. For viewers at home, that gives two routes to the race: Racing TV through a subscription or a bookmaker account, and the free-to-air RTÉ coverage when the day is scheduled there. Streaming is available through a Racing TV subscription and through bookmaker platforms for account holders who meet the usual conditions.

For those who want to be there, Cork Racecourse sits at Mallow in County Cork, on the Killarney road out of the town and on the banks of the River Blackwater. It is about 35 kilometres north of Cork city and around 64 kilometres south of Limerick, off the N20 and M8 corridor. Mallow is a mainline railway station served by trains from Cork, Dublin Heuston, Tralee and Killarney, and on race days a free shuttle bus runs between the station, the town centre and the course, which is about 2.5 kilometres away. There is an hourly bus from Cork to Mallow, and Cork Airport is roughly 44 kilometres away, about 45 minutes by road. Free car parking is available for racegoers.

General admission is usually in the region of 15 to 20 euro for adults, with reduced rates of around 15 euro for over-65s and full-time students on proof of identity, and children aged 14 and under admitted free with an adult. That makes a winter jumps afternoon at Cork an affordable day out as well as a high-quality one. Racecards are included with admission, and there is no cash machine on site, so it is worth bringing cash.

Cork's December crowd is a knowledgeable jumps audience, and the day has a settled, local feel rather than the scale of the Easter Festival. The track's identity on Hilly Way day is firmly that of a Champion Chase trial, with Willie Mullins routinely fielding several runners in the feature. Whether you follow it on RTÉ or Racing TV or make the trip to Mallow, the appeal is the same: a chance to see the season's leading two-mile chasers at the point where their spring campaigns begin.