The Champion Hurdle is the first of the four feature races at the Cheltenham Festival. The fourth race on Tuesday’s card, it is run over eight flights and two miles of Cheltenham’s turf, the same course and conditions as the opening Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. Our experts have left no stone unturned to provide the most in-depth analysis of the race alongside all our tips.
Andrew Mount’s Champion Hurdle Tips
Awaiting tips…
Matty Sutcliffe’s Champion Hurdle Tips
Awaiting tips…
Champion Hurdle Bookmaker Odds – Race 4, Tuesday 11th March 3:30
The Champion Hurdle 2025 picture is murky at present. The below field is from the 2024 renewal, which was won by State Man.
Unibet Champion Hurdle Challenge Trophy (Grade 1) (GBB Race)
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State ManJ: Paul TownendT: W P Mullins
All About The Unibet Champion Hurdle in 2025
Open to horses of ages four and upwards, the Champion Hurdle is the ultimate hurdling prize. A slick, graceful, speedy hurdler is one of the enjoyable sights in racing and some of the most celebrated horses in National Hunt history have laid claim to the trophy. The 2025 field will be finalised later in the season.
Champion Hurdle Overlooked Outsiders
It will be very difficult for any runners to usurp the great Constitution Hill in the 2025 Champion Hurdle, but his absence in 2024 did mean the name of State Man now appears on the trophy too.
However, for those wishing to bet on an each-way basis, there may well be a few names who could sneak into the top three. When we know the field in greater detail, we will look at those who have a chance of a place.
Champion Hurdle Qualifications/Trends
The Champion Hurdle is open to four-year-olds and upwards, but the diversity of races at the modern Festival has ensured no runner of that youngest age group in the last 25 years (and no winner since 1942).
Favourites have won the race in eight of the last ten years, with State Man extending that trend again last season by being the fifth in a row to oblige. Aboard another winning favourite, Honeysuckle’s jockey Rachael Blackmore made history in many ways in 2021, one of which was becoming the first female jockey to win this.
Mares also have an outstanding record in this race in recent years, comprising four of the last nine winners. In between Annie Power and Epatante’s victories, both Apple’s Jade and Laurina started at short odds as well. It’s a division they have excelled in.
No age has a particular advantage over another, but only Katchit and Espoir D’Allen have won as five-year-olds since 1985, while no horse aged into double figures has won since Sea Pigeon won as an 11-year-old in 1981 (he also won at the age of 10 in 1980).
Honeysuckle’s owner, Kenneth Alexander, also broke a growing duopoly in the Champion Hurdle. Until 2021, the previous seven runnings had been won either by the pink and green spots of Rich and Susanna Ricci, or the royal green and gold of J.P. McManus. Indeed, McManus had won the previous four courtesy of Buveur D’Air, Espoir D’Allen and Epatanate and will be as hungry as ever for his colours to be carried up the hill in front.
Prize Money in 2025
Last year’s winner State Man ensured connections shared just over £250,000 for themselves.
The total prize pot for the 2024 renewal was just below £450,000, a total which is expected to be very similar for 2025.
Champion Hurdle History
The Champion Hurdle’s inaugural running was in 1927 and comprised a mere four runners. Ironically, in this age where we moan about small fields, no Champion Hurdle field was greater than six until 1935.
The Gold Cup and Grand National’s prominence often overshadowed the hurdling scene, which did not really take off until the post-war years. Talented horses such as Brown Jack and Insurance won it prior to 1939, but the latter’s owner, Miss Dorothy Paget was possibly more distracted by her brilliant five-time Gold Cup winner Golden Miller racing at the same time.
Two horses were especially responsible for the Champion Hurdle’s growing popularity. For six years between 1949 and 1954 only two horses won the race: both Hatton’s Grace and Sir Ken rattled off hat-tricks in the race, the former being an early star for Vincent O’Brien before that family began its dynasty on the flat.
Of all the championship races, the Champion Hurdle has the greatest history of repeat winners. A run from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, all of Persian War, Bula, Comedy Of Errors, Night Nurse, Monksfield and Sea Pigeon all won the race at least twice (the first-named three times). The era is often seen as the “Golden Age” of hurdlers.
Of all the debates as to who is the greatest, the battle for supremacy in the Champion Hurdle’s roll call is perhaps the most competitive. Any one of the Golden Age sextet would be worthy of that mantle, though just a few years later, Dawn Run won the race. That came in 1984, two years before she became the first and only horse to win both the Champion Hurdle and Gold Cup.
Many would point to Istabraq as the best ever. His three successive wins came in serene style, and he was probably denied a fourth due to the foot and mouth outbreak in 2001.
13 years later, Hurricane Fly regained his Champion Hurdle crown. His two Festival successes were among a scarcely believable 22 Grade 1 wins throughout his career, the most by any horse in history. Staunch fans of the horse would never hear different.
Winners since 2000
| Year | Horse | Jockey/Trainer | Odds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Istabraq | J:Charlie Swan T:Aidan O’Brien | 8/15F |
| 2001 | VOID | J:N/A T:N/A | VOID |
| 2002 | Hors La Loi III | J:Dean Gallagher T:James Fanshawe | 10/1 |
| 2003 | Rooster Booster | J:Richard Johnson T:Philip Hobbs | 9/2 |
| 2004 | Hardy Eustace | J:Conor O’Dwyer T:Dessie Hughes | 33/1 |
| 2005 | Hardy Eustace | J:Conor O’Dwyer T:Dessie Hughes | 7/2F |
| 2006 | Brave Inca | J:Tony McCoy T:Colm Murphy | 7/4F |
| 2007 | Sublimity | J:Philip Carberry T:John Carr | 16/1 |
| 2008 | Katchit | J:Robert Thornton T:Alan King | 10/1 |
| 2009 | Punjabi | J:Barry Geraghty T:Nicky Henderson | 22/1 |
| 2010 | Binocular | J:Tony McCoy T:Nicky Henderson | 9/1 |
| 2011 | Hurricane Fly | J:Ruby Walsh T:Willie Mullins | 11/4F |
| 2012 | Rock On Ruby | J:Noel Fehily T:Paul Nicholls | 11/1 |
| 2013 | Hurricane Fly | J:Ruby Walsh T:Willie Mullins | 13/8F |
| 2014 | Jezki | J:Barry Geraghty T:Jessica Harrington | 9/1 |
| 2015 | Faugheen | J:Ruby Walsh T:Willie Mullins | 4/5F |
| 2016 | Annie Power | J:Ruby Walsh T:Willie Mullins | 5/2F |
| 2017 | Buveur D’Air | J:Noel Fehily T:Nicky Henderson | 5/1 |
| 2018 | Buveur D’Air | J:Barry Geraghty T:Nicky Henderson | 4/6F |
| 2019 | Espoir d’Allen | J:Mark Walsh T:Gavin Cromwell | 16/1 |
| 2020 | Epatante | J:Barry Geraghty T:Nicky Henderson | 2/1F |
| 2021 | Honeysuckle | J:Rachael Blackmore T:Henry De Bromhead | 11/10F |
| 2022 | Honeysuckle | J:Rachael Blackmore T:Henry De Bromhead | 8/11F |
| 2023 | Constitution Hill | J:Nico De Boinville T:Nicky Henderson | 4/11F |
| 2024 | State Man | J:Paul Townend T:Willie Mullins | 2/5F |