Champion Hurdle
16:00 Cheltenham Festival
2025-03-11
Winner: £
Runners: 22
Going:
No. of hurdles: 8
Distance: 2m0f87y
The Unibet Champion Hurdle, the feature race on day one of the Cheltenham Festival, is the championship contest for 2m hurdlers and has been won by some of the greatest hurdlers of all time, including Night Nurse, Persian War, Sea Pigeon and Istabraq.
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RACING POST TIP
CHAMPION HURDLE PREVIOUS WINNERS
| Year | Horse | Previous Form | Age | Price | Trainer | Jockey |
| 2023 | Constitution Hill | 1-11 | 6 | 4-11F | Nicky Henderson | Nico de Boinville |
| 2022 | Honeysuckle | 111-11 | 8 | 8-11 | Henry De Bromhead | Rachael Blackmore |
| 2021 | Honeysuckle | 111-11 | 7 | 9-4 | Henry De Bromhead | Rachael Blackmore |
| 2020 | Epitante | 119-11 | 6 | 2-1F | Nicky Henderson | Barry Geraghty |
| 2019 | Espoir D’Allen | 14-111 | 5 | 16-1 | Gavin Cromwell | Mark Walsh |
| 2018 | Buveur D’Air | 11-111 | 7 | 4-6F | Nicky Henderson | Barry Geraghty |
| 2017 | Buveur D’Air | 31-111 | 6 | 5-1 | Nicky Henderson | Noel Fehily |
| 2016 | Annie Power | 21-F-11 | 8 | 5-2F | Willie Mullins | Ruby Walsh |
| 2015 | Faugheen | 111-11 | 7 | 4-5F | Willie Mullins | Ruby Walsh |
| 2014 | Jezki | 1-1124 | 6 | 9-1 | Jessica Harrington | Barry Geraghty |
CHAMPION HURDLE TRENDS AND STATS
Key trends
- Rated within 8lb of RPR top-rated, 9/10
- Won a Grade 1 hurdle, 9/10
- Won last time out, 9/10
- No more than 12 hurdle runs, 9/10
- Aged between six and eight, 9/10
- Adjusted RPR of at least 168, 8/10
Other factors
- Katchit (2008) broke a longstanding trend when he became the first five-year-old to win since See You Then in 1985 but in 2019 Espoir D’Allen became the second in just over a decade (28 from that age group had failed in the interim).
- Three winners had not run since the turn of the year (two trained by Nicky Henderson).
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WHAT HAPPENED LAST YEAR - CHAMPION HURDLE 2023
Constitution Hill became the first since Bula in 1971 to do the Supreme/Champion Hurdle double and did so in incredible fashion, registering the highest winning RPR (177) in the history of the race. State Man who had lowered Honeysuckle’s colours in the Irish Champion Hurdle a month earlier, would be more than capable of winning a standard Champion Hurdle, but had to settle for chasing home Constitution Hill to the sum of nine lengths. Zanahyir chased the pair home a respectable 4 lengths behind with Vauban a further two and a quarter lengths back in fourth.