Gold Cup winning racehorse owner Raymond Mould has offered a £15,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of the trophy won by his star chaser Charter Party in 1988, as well as other famous trophies that were stolen in a robbery on his house earlier this week.

Mould's home at Wormington, near Broadway, in Worcestershire, was broken into at dawn on Wednesday with the thieves seemingly having known in advance which items they wanted to steal, the major trophies appealing to have specifically targeted in the robbery.

Alongside the Cheltenham Gold Cup, the Jonny Henderson Grand Annual Chase Challenge Trophy and the Britannia Handicap Cup were also taken, the value of the haul being estimated at somewhere in the region of £150,000. Mould, who was away in London at the time of the break-in, confirmed that all the items were insured but that, for historical and sentimental reasons, he is very keen to recover the originals even though copies could be made.

Charter Party, a top class chaser landed the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1988 under a fine ride fom regular pilot Richard Dunwoody, beating Cavvies Clown and Beau Ranger, and was a popular horse on the National Hunt British and Irish racing scene for many seasons carry the Mould's famous green jacket with white stars.

In 1989 the Document gelding attempted a repeat victory in the blue riband chase, but came up against Desert Orchid at the very height of his powers and had to settle for third place behind David Ellsworth's legendary grey and the galland Yahoo, who slogged out one of the most famous finishes of all in desperate conditions, with 'Dessie' getting up in the last 100 yards to claim an improbable victory.