Champion Hurdle
16:00 Cheltenham Festival
2025-03-11
Winner: £253,215
Runners: 10
Going: Soft
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.
FORM
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CHAMPION HURDLE PREVIOUS WINNERS
| Year | Horse | Previous Form | Age | Price | Trainer | Jockey |
| 2024 | State Man | 21-111 | 7 | 2-5F | Willie Mullins | Paul Townend |
| 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 |
CHAMPION HURDLE TRENDS AND STATS
Key trends
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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, 8/10
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Aged between six and eight, 9/10
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Adjusted RPR of at least 165, 5/10
Other factors
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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).
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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 2024
With Constitution Hill absent, it was finally State Man‘s time to bask in the glory of being crowned the Champion Hurdler. Having already proved himself in being Ireland’s best two-mile hurdler, he avenged his thrashing the year before when fending off the challenge of Irish Point by a workmanlike length and a quarter, despite being sent off the red-hot 2-5 favourite. That added to his wins in the Morgiana, Matheson and Irish Champion Hurdles again and while Nicky Henderson rued his flagbearer’s absence, he still managed to take home third place when 33-1 shot Luccia ran a cracker.