The Mares’ Hurdle divides opinion but for the long-term benefit of National Hunt breeders - and the sport as a whole - it has to stay

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Cheltenham's Grade 1 Mares' Hurdle has become something of the problem child of National Hunt racing's showpiece meeting, with opinions about its merits dominating debate, generating acres of newsprint and hours of footage.

Lossiemouth's success last Tuesday, which preceded the shock Champion Hurdle triumph of Golden Ace, has very much reignited the discussion around the status of the race and whether it diverts top-class racemares from competing in the marquee event on the opening day of the festival.

Even Peter Molony, who was one of the staunchest defenders of the contest when managing the racing interests of Kenny Alexander, owner of Honeysuckle, whose emotional Mares' Hurdle victory came after her triumphs in the Champion, has confessed on these pages to a change of heart.

Molony told my colleague Richard Forristal that its status as a Grade 1 was bringing the race into disrepute, a stark about-turn from a man who fought so hard to resist rumoured changes to the conditions of the race only nine months ago.

If either State Man or Constitution Hill had completed in the Champion Hurdle, in all likelihood one of them would have won and debate about the Mares' Hurdle would not be as prominent in the discourse around the meeting.

But, as Ruby Walsh once said, "If my aunt had balls, she'd be my uncle," so we are left to deal with the situation as we find it.

One important fact which must not be forgotten is that Golden Ace is only the seventh individual mare to win the Champion Hurdle in its illustrious history with 86 years between the first – African Sister's victory in 1939 for Keith and Charles Piggott – and the most recent win.

Thirty-five years elapsed before the legendary Dawn Run's triumph in 1984, with a decade separating her win from that of Flakey Dove, and two more decades passed until Annie Power's unforgettable redemption act.

Looking at data going back to 1988, there have been just 34 runs by 24 individual mares in the Champion Hurdle in all that time, with six wins by five individual mares. In addition, one mare was second and three were third, including when 2020 winner Epatante filled that position behind Honeysuckle the following year – and she was second to her in 2022.

Golden Ace: Champion Hurdle queen last weekCredit: GROSSICK RACING

That gives a winners to runners rate by mares of 21 per cent, impressive none the less.

Another key piece of information is that four of those seven mares have recorded their Champion Hurdle victories since the Mares' Hurdle was awarded Grade 1 status in 2015 – Annie Power in 2016, Epatante four years later, then Honeysuckle's back-to-back successes which ensured that for three years in a row the race was won by mares, and now Golden Ace.

The statistics would suggest that the best mares do contest the Champion Hurdle. 

What emerges from the data is fascinating. When the Mares' Hurdle was a Grade 2 race, only one mare, Whiteoak, who was the inaugural winner of the contest, ran in the Champion Hurdle. The Donald McCain-trained mare was a 20-1 shot when winning in 2008 and then finished 12th behind Punjabi in the Champion Hurdle a year later.

Until Annie Power tackled the Champion Hurdle in 2016, no mare ran in the race. For the two years after Annie Power's win, no mares contested the Champion Hurdle, but in 2019 there were three – Laurina, Verdana Blue and Apple's Jade – while Epatante was the sole mare in the 2020 contest. A year later she and Honeysuckle flew the flag for mares, and again in 2022, but in 2023 there was no female representation, while last year it was left to Luccia, third behind State Man and Irish Point, to be the sole mare in the race.

There were two last week, Golden Ace and Brighterdaysahead, and we all know how that panned out.

It doesn't appear from the data that talented mares are being diverted from the race. In the two decades between 1988 and 2008, when the Mares' Hurdle was first run, there were seven years in which no mares ran in the Champion Hurdle.

In all that time only Flakey Dove, who won the race in 1994, and Bilboa, who was third in 2002, made the frame, with 21 runners in all that time, suggesting that the level of mares contesting the Champion Hurdle has improved in recent years particularly those who have run in the race in the past decade.

However, there are key differences between the races, not least the fact that the Mares' Hurdle is run over four furlongs further than the Champion Hurdle.

Honeysuckle: bowed out in glory after winning the Mares' Hurdle in 2023Credit: Alan Crowhurst

Then there are mitigating circumstances for when connections of top-class mares favour what many see as the easier option of the Mares' Hurdle over the prestige event. 

Two years ago the race was seen as a more appropriate option for Honeysuckle, despite her status as a dual winner of the Champion Hurdle. Her victory, just six months after the death of trainer Henry de Bromhead's son Jack, provoked a spine-tingling reaction from connections and the crowd; it was one of the most iconic moments in festival history.

If she had contested the Champion Hurdle, those unforgettable moments likely would not have happened and the festival, and racing, would have lost out.

Honeysuckle looked to be a little less than her magnificent best that season, so what would people rather? That a mare who had been beaten twice, including by the horse who would go on to be second in the Champion Hurdle, finished her career as an also-ran or went out on a glorious high?

Lossiemouth, who seems to be a lightning rod for the current furore, is a case in point. The six-year-old Great Pretender mare looked to be unable to go the early pace over two miles when splitting Constitution Hill and Burdett Road in the Christmas Hurdle and suffered a horrendous fall in the Irish Champion Hurdle.

It was widely reported that the week before Cheltenham she worked with State Man at home and that, on the evidence of that exercise, trainer Willie Mullins knew State Man was the yard's best chance of Champion Hurdle glory, and Lossiemouth's best option was the Mares' Hurdle.

Surely it is only correct that a trainer aims their horses at the races they believe them most capable of winning? 

A trainer's duty is to their owners, they are the ones who fund the sport and keep the show on the road by spending substantial money on horses and training fees, often for very little reward. 

If Mullins, or any trainer, believes on all the evidence in front of them that their best chance of providing their owners with a Cheltenham winner is in the Mares' Hurdle rather than the Champion Hurdle, that is the right course of action for them to take.

Epatante: sole mare in the 2020 Champion HurdleCredit: Richard Heathcote

Just because Golden Ace won the Champion Hurdle, it doesn't necessarily follow that Lossiemouth would have won had she had lined up the race. 

Then there is the mares' programme, which is vital for the future and health of the sport and of which the Mares' Hurdle is the crowning glory. Golden Ace's somewhat fortuitous Champion Hurdle victory this year surely proves there is a pathway to glory for mares.

Ian Gosden's 12,000gns purchase had Brighterdaysahead behind her when winning the Grade 2 Mares' Novices' Hurdle last season and the daughter of Golden Horn took the logical next step, albeit at the behest of Gosden rather than her trainer Jeremy Scott.

As recently as ten years ago, plenty of National Hunt breeders dreaded to see a filly foal arriving as they were generally unwanted at the sales, with little value to them and fewer options on the track. Even now, many National Hunt studs will advertise concessions on stallion fees, often in the region of 50 per cent, for filly foals as part of their advertising and marketing campaigns.

Initiatives such as the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders' Association's bonus for fillies and the Mare Owners Prize Scheme in Britain provided a financial incentive for owners to purchase fillies at the sales and place them in training. 

Changes to the programme, increasing the number of mares only races and introducing Graded races for mares and Grade 1s such as the Honeysuckle Mares' Hurdle at Fairyhouse and Punchestown's Champion Mares' Hurdle provided the best of these mares with an opportunity to enhance their careers and paddock value.

Which ultimately is what this is all about. Improving the mare herd can be done only by testing mares on the track, running them and seeing where their true abilities lie. Giving mares the opportunity to earn black type, giving them the chance to compete against the best, whether of their sex or not, can only be of long-term benefit for Irish and British National Hunt breeders and improve the sport.

A Grade 1 contest for mares must be part of that.

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Pedigree pick

The Gredley family's yellow and black silks were carried with distinction at Cheltenham last week by homebred half-brothers Burdett Road and East India Dock, who were placed in the Champion Hurdle and Triumph Hurdle respectively.

Burdett Road is a son of Muharaar and it is another homebred son of the July Cup winner's sire Oasis Dream who catches the eye tonight in the first division of the Best Odds Guaranteed at BetMGM Maiden Stakes at Southwell at 7.30pm.

Festive Time is a three-year-old full-brother to the Gredleys' European champion two-year-old filly of 2018 - Pretty Pollyanna. Successful that year in the Group 1 Prix Morny and Group 2 Duchess Of Cambridge Stakes, Pretty Pollyanna went on to be placed in the Irish 1,000 Guineas the following season.

Her dam Unex Mona Lisa also produced Usuario Amigo, a winning full-brother to Pretty Pollyanna and Festive Time, and the Shamardal mare is also the dam of Listed-placed winner Chalice Stakes third Climate Friendly - a daughter of Frankel.

Unex Mona Lisa has a perfect record of six winners from as many runners and is out of a half-sister to Bill Gredley's brilliant mare User Friendly who was victorious in the Oaks, St Leger, Irish Oaks, Yorkshire Oaks and Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.

Another newcomer of note in the race is Nutmeg for Amo Racing and George Scott. By Kodiac, the colt cost 150,000gns at Book 2 from breeders Tally-Ho Stud and he is full-brother to Amo's Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes runner-up, Devilwala.

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