Red Rower (foaled 1934) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 1945 Cheltenham Gold Cup. He raced during the Second World War when opportunities for National Hunt horses were severely limited. After winning the Lilley Brook Chase in 1940 he finished third to stable companion Poet Prince in his first attempt at the Gold Cup in the following year. In 1942 he won the Grand Annual Chase and started favourite for the Gold Cup but was beaten into second place by Medoc II. On the resumption of National Hunt racing after a two-year break he finally won the Gold Cup at the age of eleven in 1945. Background Red Rower was a bay gelding bred and owned by Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Baron Stalbridge. He was sired by Rameses the Second, a son of the wartime Triple Crown winner Gainsborough. Red Rower's dam Red Maru also produced Red April who won the County Hurdle and finished third in both the Champion Hurdle and the Cheltenham Gold Cup. She was a granddaughter of Fair Wind, a broodmare whose other descendants included Dark Japan (Goodwood Cup) and West Indies (Irish 1000 Guineas). This made Red Rower one of the few high-class racehorses to emerge from Thoroughbred family 52. Red Rower was initially sent into training with Ivor Anthony at Wroughton in Wiltshire. Racing career Red Rower showed early promise as a steeplechaser, winning three races over two miles before stepping up to three miles and winning the Lilley Brook Chase as a six-year-old at Cheltenham in April 1940. The gelding made his first appearance in the Cheltenham Gold Cup as a seven-year-old in 1941 in which he was ridden by Danny Morgan and started at odds of 8/1. He led the field approaching the final fence where he was overtaken by his stablemate Poet Prince and lost second place by a short head to Savon in the final strides. Wartime restrictions meant that major sporting events were confined to the weekend and the 1942 Cheltenham Festival was run over successive Saturdays rather than consecutive days. On 14 March, Red Rower contested the Grand Annual Chase a race which attracted many of the leading contenders for the Gold Cup a week later. He took the lead at the final fence and won by a head from Medoc II with Broken Promise a length away in third. Medoc's more highly regarded stablemate Savon (runner-up