County Handicap Hurdle

Traditionally the ‘getting-out stakes’ of the entire Cheltenham Festival, the County Handicap Hurdle became the second race on the final day, Gold Cup Day, in 2009, but remains one of the notoriously difficult handicap races staged during the week, of which there currently a dozen. In the last 10 runnings, three favoruites, all trained by Willie Mullins, have won, but they have been supplemented by three winners at 33/1, two winners at 20/1 and two at 12/1 in that same period.

Not altogether surprisingly, Mullins is the leading trainer in the history of the County Handicap Hurdle, having saddled Thousand Stars (2010), Final Approach (2011), Wicklow Brave (2015), Arctic Fire (2017), Saint Roi (2020), State Man (2022), Absurde (2024) and Kargese (2025) for a total of eight wins altogether. Mullins’ current stable jockey, Paul Townend, who rode the last five of that octet to victory, is likewise leading jockey.

The County Handicap Hurdle is run over two miles and a furlong on the New Course at Cheltenham and is now what the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) terms a ‘Premier Handicap’, having been reclassified, along with all previous ‘Grade 3’ races, since 2023. Worth £98,370 in total prize money and with a safety limit of 26, the race is inevitably fiercely competitive.

The most notable winner in recent years was State Man, who justified favouritism in 2022 and has since won 12 times at Grade 1 level, including the Champion Hurdle at the 2024 Cheltenham Festival. The Doctor Dino gelding would almost certainly have won the Champion Hurdle again in 2025, but for falling at the final flight of hurdles when five lengths ahead of his nearest pursuer.