Summary

The Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival stands as one of the most illustrious and lucrative races, dating back to 1927. This summary delves into the race's history, recent winners, odds for 2024, and related information.

The article provides a comprehensive list of Champion Hurdle winners since 2004, emphasizing the remarkable performance of Constitution Hill in 2023. The current odds for the 2024 edition on LeoVegas are highlighted, with Constitution Hill as the favorite at 1/4.

Outlined are key details about the Champion Hurdle race, including its significance, the course it covers, and its historical background since 1927. The race, held on the Tuesday of the Festival, spans 2 miles and 87 yards, featuring eight hurdles.

The prize money for the 2023 edition was £450,000, with the winner receiving £253,215. The article also notes five horses that secured victory in three consecutive years and the unfortunate cancellation in 2001 that prevented Istabraq from potentially winning four times.

Several races serve as preparation for the Champion Hurdle, providing insights into potential contenders. Notable events include the Hatton's Grace Hurdle, Irish Champion Hurdle, Christmas Hurdle, Fighting Fifth Hurdle, International Hurdle, and Champion Hurdle Trial. These races offer a glimpse into horses that may perform well at Cheltenham.

In summary, the article covers the historical significance of the Champion Hurdle, recent winners, odds for 2024, and key trial races leading up to the prestigious event at the Cheltenham Festival.

Table of Contents

• Cheltenham Champion Hurdle Betting Tips
• Champion Hurdle Results
• Champion Hurdle Odds
• All about the Champion Hurdle Race at Cheltenham
• Champion Hurdle Race Prize
• Champion Hurdle Past Winners
• Champion Hurdle Trial Races
• Cheltenham Champion Hurdle Betting Tips
• Champion Hurdle Results
• Champion Hurdle Odds
• All about the Champion Hurdle Race at Cheltenham
• Champion Hurdle Race Prize
• Champion Hurdle Past Winners
• Champion Hurdle Trial Races

Cheltenham Champion Hurdle Betting Tips

The Champion Hurdle is one of the Cheltenham Festival’s most famous, prestigious and richest races. Here’s everything you need to know about it.

Champion Hurdle Results

Here are the winners of the Champions Hurdle since 2004 along with other important information about the race.

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Champion Hurdle Odds

At first glance, this is one of the Cheltenham Festival races where the favourite will need an outstanding effort from one of the other contenders if he’s to be beaten.

After all, red-hot favourite Constitution Hill won this event last year as the shortest-priced favourite in the betting in the race’s history (4/11). If anything, the ease with which it won last year suggested it was rather a generous price although, of course, hindsight is a fine thing.

Since that outstanding effort last year, it’s won both its other races with relative ease and is now eight wins from eight starts over hurdles in its career.

Here are the latest odds on LeoVegas ahead of the 2024 edition.

All about the Champion Hurdle Race at Cheltenham

Open to horses aged four or older, it’s a Grade 1 event and as the name suggests, is the most important and prestigious hurdling event on the National Hunt calendar.

It’s run over 2 miles and 87 yards on the Old Course at Cheltenham and has eight hurdles to clear.

It was first run in 1927, wasn’t run in 1932 due to persistent frost and didn’t take place in 1943 or 1944 because of the Second World War.

A few records to note: in 1935 Sir Ken won the second of his three consecutive triumphs as the shortest price of any winner (2/5) of the race up to that point. That is, until Constitution Hill won it in 2023 at the marginally shorter price of 4/11.

Dawn Run was not only the second mare to win this race but also the only horse to win this one and the Cheltenham Gold Cup (in 1984), achieved when she won the latter two years after success in the Champion Hurdle.

On a less positive note, in 2023 Zanahiyr became the first horse in the race to be disqualified after it was found a banned substance had been given to it on the day of the race. After finishing third, it was later demoted to last.

Having often been held on a Wednesday and sometimes Thursday or Friday in the past, it’s now always run on the Tuesday, the opening day of the Festival.

Champion Hurdle Race Prize

In 2023 the prize money for the race as a whole was £450,000 with £253,215 going to the winner. The latest indications are that it will remain the same for the 2024 edition.

Champion Hurdle Past Winners

Five horses have won it on three separate occasions. They are:

• Hatton's Grace – 1949, 1950, 1951
• Sir Ken – 1952, 1953, 1954
• Persian War – 1968, 1969, 1970
• See You Then – 1985, 1986, 1987
• Istabraq – 1998, 1999, 2000

As you can see, all five of those won the race in three consecutive years rather than winning it, not doing so, and then winning it again in a subsequent year.

Istabraq may well have become the only horse in the history of the race to have won it four times but the 2001 edition of the Festival, in what would have been his fourth win if successful, was cancelled as a result of an outbreak of foot and mouth disease.

Champion Hurdle Trial Races

The following races all serve as preparation for contenders to the Champion Hurdle crown and offer some serious clues as to which horses may go on to do well at Cheltenham later on in the season.

The Hatton's Grace Hurdle

Run in late November or early December every year, it’s a Grade 1 race staged at Fairyhouse in Ireland and run over a distance of 2 miles and 4 furlongs with twelve hurdles to be jumped. It’s open to four-year-olds or up and in 2023 had prize money of £570,000 to the winner.

First taking place in 1994, it got its name from three-time Champion Hurdle winner Hatton’s Grace, victorious in 1949, 1950 and 1951.

Three horses have won it on three occasions. They are:

• Limestone Lad – 1999, 2001, 2002
• Solerina – 2003, 2004, 2005
• Apple's Jade - 2016, 2017, 2018
• Honeysuckle - 2019, 2020, 2021

Istabraq, Hurricane Fly and Honesysuckle are among the horses to have won the Hatton’s Grace race followed by the Champion Hurdle a few months later.

Irish Champion Hurdle

Also open to horses aged four or older, it’s run over a shorter distance than the Champion Hurdle (exactly 2 miles in this case) with eight hurdles to be jumped. It takes place either in late January or early February every year at Leopardstown in Ireland.

It’s been going since 1950 when the first-ever winner of it was a horse we know only too well, Hatton’s Grace, who of course the race just mentioned was named after.

Hurricane Fly won it five times in a row between 2011 and 2015 while Honeysuckle managed the double of wining this one and the Champion Hurdle in the same season, the most recent horse to do so.

Jockeys Ruby Walsh and Charlie Swan both won it on six occasions.

The Christmas Hurdle

Taking place on Boxing Day every year, as the name suggests, the Christmas Hurdle is a Grade 1 National Hunt hurdle race that takes place at Kempton Park and is run over 2 miles, with eight hurdles to be jumped. It’s part of the King George VI Chase meeting.

In addition to being good preparation for the Champion Hurdle, it’s also the second leg of the Triple Crown of Hurdling, the other races being the Fighting Fifth Hurdle held at Newcastle (see below) and the, you guessed it, Champion Hurdle.

It first took place in the 1960s, was abandoned in both 1967 and 1968, and then came back in 1969 to its current format.

Six winners of this race have also gone on to taste success in the Champion Hurdle. They are:

• Lanzarote (1974)
• Dawn Run (1983–84),
• Kribensis (1989–90),
• Faugheen (2014–15),
• Epatante (2019–20) and
• Constitution Hill (2022–23).

Of those, all but Dawn Run won the Christmas Hurdle on two occasions. The others so have won it twice being Coral Diver, Intersky Falcon, Harchibald and Binocular.

The Fighting Fifth Hurdle

It’s the first leg of that Triple Crown and as we know, it takes place at Newcastle in either late November or early December, being run over 2 miles and half a furlong with nine hurdles to be jumped. It’s also a Grade 1 event and has been since 2004, being a Grade 2 race prior to that.

The name of the race comes from the nickname of the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers.

Comedy of Errors (1972, 1973, 1974) and Birds Nest (1976, 1977, 1979) are the only triple winners of it while Comedy of Errors, Night Nurse, Sea Pigeon, Kribensis, Buveau D’Air and Constitution Hill are among the horses to have won this one before also going on to win the Champion Hurdle.

International Hurdle

Taking place at the New Course at Cheltenham (remembering that the Champion Hurdle is run on the Old Course) in January, it’s a Grade 2 event run over 2 miles and 179 yards, with eight hurdles to be jumped.

First run in 1967 as the Cheltenham Trial Hurdle, it was also called the Bula Hurdle in 1977 in honour of the two-time winner of the Champion Hurdle, Bula. The race wasn’t run in either 2022 or 2023 due to excessive frost.

Bird’s Nest, a triple winner of the Fighting Fifth Hurdle, was also the first horse to achieve the feat in this race, doing so in 1977, 1978 and 1980. Relkeel and The New One are the other horses to have won it on three occasions.

Rooster Booster was the last horse to win this race before going on to win the Champion Hurdle (2002-3).

Champion Hurdle Trial

Like the International Hurdle, it also took place in January and is also a Grade 2 event, though in this case it was staged at Haydock Park and run at the slightly shorter distance of 1 mile and 7 ½ furlongs, being open to horses aged four or older.

It was the third and final leg of the UK-based races making up the Road to Cheltenham series, the others being the Fighting Fifth Hurdle and International Hurdle that we’ve just looked at; the other four races of the Series being held in Ireland.

It was staged between 1981 and 2022 but in April 2023, the British Horseracing Authority decided to leave it out of the 2022-2023 programme.

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Check out our other Cheltenham betting tips & guides too:

• Cheltenham Festival Betting Guide
• Cheltenham Festival Betting Tips
• Gold Cup Betting Tips
• Champion Chase Betting Tips
• Stayers Hurdle Betting Tips