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Run over an advertised distance of three miles on the New Course at Cheltenham, the Stayers’ Hurdle is the least valuable and, arguably, the least prestigious of the four traditional ‘feature’ races run at the Cheltenham Festival. Indeed, since the Festival Trophy – known for sponsorship purposes as the Ryanair Chase – was promoted to Grade 1 status in 2008, the Stayers’ Hurdle has shared headline status on the third day of the Festival with that race, which, at the time of writing, offers £50,000 more in total prize money.

Nevertheless, the Stayers’ Hurdle remains a Grade 1, ‘championship’ event, worth £325,000 in prize money and, as such, is the premier long-distance hurdle race in the National Hunt calendar. The race was established, in its current guise, in 1972 and, since then, several horses have been victorious more than once.

Crimson Embers (1982, 1986), Galmoy (1987, 1988), Baracouda (2002, 2003) and Flooring Porter (2021, 2022) have two wins to their names, Inglis Drever (2005, 2007 and 2008) has three, but most prolific of all was Big Buck’s (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012), who chalked up four wins during a record-breaking 18-race winning streak that stretched over five years. His trainer, Paul Nicholls, and jockey, Ruby Walsh, who also won on Nichols Canyon, trained by Willie Mullins in 2017, are respectively the leading trainer and jockey in the modern history of the Stayers’ Hurdle.

Looking ahead to the 2025 renewal of the Stayers’ Hurdle, which is scheduled for March 13, 2025, it may be worth noting that while three favourites won in the last 10 years, they were accompanied by winners at 50/1, 33/1, 12/1 (twice) and 10/1 in the same period.

Nowadays, the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle is a Grade 1 contest, run over two miles and half a furlong on the Old Course at Cheltenham, where it is the opening event of the Cheltenham Festival, staged annually in March. As such, the runners are traditionally greeted by hullabaloo from the grandstands, popularly known as the ‘Cheltenham Roar’, as the tapes go up.

As the name suggests, the race is open to novice hurdlers – or, in other words, horses which, prior to the start of the current season, have not won a hurdle race – aged four years and upwards. It was inaugurated, as the Gloucestershire Hurdle, in 1946 and, until 1972, was run in two or more separate divisions, depending on the number of entries. The ‘Supreme Novices’ Hurdle’ title was adopted in 1978 and the race currently has a safety limit of 22 runners.

Willie Mullins, who, at the time of writing, has been leading trainer at the Cheltenham Festival 11 times in the last 14 years, is also the leading trainer in the history of the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. Indeed, Tourist Attraction (1995) was Mullins’ first Festival winner and he has since added Ebaziyan (2007), Champagne Fever (2013), Vautour (2014), Douvan (2015), Klassical Dream (2019) and Appreciate It (2021) for a total of seven winners overall. Aside from the Mullins’ septet, other notable winners of the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle down the years have included Hors La Loi III (1999), Brave Inca (2004), Altior (2016), Shiskin (2020) and Constition Hill (2022).