Stayers’ Hurdle

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.

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