How many mares have won the Champion Hurdle?

The race now acknowledged as the two-mile hurdling championship, the Champion Hurdle, was established in 1927 and, in 91 runnings since, has been won on six occasions by six different mares. African Sister, ridden by Keith Piggott, father of Lester, was the first to strike a blow for the fairer sex, in the last Champion Hurdle to be run before the outbreak of World War II, in 1939.

However, it would be another 45 years before Dawn Run – who would later make history by becoming the only horse to complete the Champion Hurdle and Cheltenham Gold Cup double – carried Jonjo O’Neill to victory for Paddy Mullins, father of Willie, in 1984. A decade later, Flakey Dove, trained by Richard Price and ridden by Mark Dwyer, added her name to the roll of honour, but there was another lengthy hiatus before the arrival of the next winning mare.

Nevertheless, in 2016, Willie Mullins emulated his father by winning the Champion Hurdle with Annie Power and, in the style of ‘London buses’, her victory was quickly followed by those of Epatante in 2020 and Honeysuckle in 2021. Indeed, in recent years, the dominance of the likes of Epatante and Honeysuckle in the two-mile hurdling division has led some observers to call for the abolition of the 7lb weight-for-sex allowance that mares currently receive from their male counterparts in ‘championship’ races, such as the Champion Hurdle. Proponents of the move argue, with some justification, that the result of such races should be determined on merit alone, regardless of the sex of the participants.

 

How many winners has Henry de Bromhead saddled at the Cheltenham Festival?

Compared with the likes of Willie Mullins, Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls, Henry de Bromhead is a relative newcomer to success at the Cheltenham Festival. However, in recent years, he has emerged as a force majeure on both sides of the Irish Sea and, in 2021, became the first trainer in history to saddle the winners of the Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase and the Cheltenham Gold Cup at the same Cheltenham Festival.

Henry de Bromhead took over the training licence at the family stables in Knockeen, Co. Waterford from his father, Harry, on January 1, 2000. However, it was not until 10 years later that he saddled Sizing Europe to win the Arkle Challenge Trophy, but he garnered further acclaim by saddling the same horse to win the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 2011, the year in which he also won the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase with Sizing Australia.

In 2015, the late Alan Potts, owner of Sizing Europe and Sizing Australia, decided to remove all his horses from the Knockeen stable, but de Bromhead has continued to thrive. At the last count, he had 15 Cheltenham Festival winners to his name, having won the Queen Mother Champion Chase three times, with Sizing Europe in 2011, Special Tiara in 2017 and Put The Kettle On in 2021 and the Champion Hurdle and Cheltenham Gold Cup once apiece, with Honeysuckle and Minella Indo, both in 2021.

 

What is the Prestbury Cup?

Fierce rivalry between British and Irish trainers has been a feature of the Cheltenham Festival since the days of Cottage Rake who, in 1948, became the first Irish-trained horse to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup and defended his title in 1949 and 1950. The duel between Arkle, trained in Ireland, and Mill House, trained in England, in the 1964 Cheltenham Gold Cup fuelled further Irish interest in the Cheltenham Festival. Notwithstanding Covid-19 restrictions, the Irish ‘invasion’ of Prestbury Park in March each year has been a fact of life ever since.

In any event, the battle for supremacy at the Cheltenham Festival was made ‘official’ in 2014, with the creation of the Prestbury Cup, which is presented to whichever country saddles most winners over the four days. In 2014 and 2015, the Cheltenham Festival consisted of 27 races, rather than the current 28, and British trainers won the Prestbury Cup on both occasions, by scores of 15-12 and 14-13, respectively. However, since 2016, the boot has been firmly on the other foot, with Irish trainers winning, or retaining, the Prestbury Cup on every occasion. Indeed, in 2021, Irish dominance was exemplified by a record 23-5 scoreline, with all four ‘championship’ races and twelve of the fourteen Grade 1 races going the way of Irish trainers.

 

How many Cheltenham Festival races are named after horses?

The Cheltenham Festival was extended from three days to four in 2005 and, at that stage, several races – including the Ryanair Chase and the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase – were added to the programme to facilitate the extra day. Further races have since been added, increasing the total number to 28, four of which are named after horses.

Inaugurated in 1969, the Arkle Challenge Trophy is named after Arkle, a three-time winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1964, 1965 and 1966 and the highest-rated steeplechaser in the history of Timeform. Inaugurated in 2011, the Golden Miller Novices’ Chase, a.k.a. the Marsh Novices’ Chase, commemorates another Cheltenham Festival legend, Golden Miller, who won the Cheltenham Gold Cup five years running between 1932 and 1936. Similarly, the Dawn Run Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle, a.k.a. the Parnell Properties Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle, which was inaugurated in 2016, celebrates Dawn Run, the first and, so far, only horse to win the Champion Hurdle and the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

The most recent addition to the Cheltenham Festival programme, the Liberthine Mares’ Chase – known, for sponsorship purposes, as the Mrs. Paddy Power Mares’ Chase – was inaugurated in 2021. The eponymous Liberthine was a mare owned by former Chairman of the Cheltenham Racecourse Committee Robert Waley-Cohen, best known for winning the Mildmay of Flete Handicap Chase at the 2005 Cheltenham Festival.

1 7 8 9 10 11 17