Cheltenham Festival 2025: Champion Hurdle

Cheltenham Festival 2025: Champion Hurdle The two-mile hurdling championship, the Champion Hurdle, is the first of four ‘feature’ races run at the Cheltenham Festival, the others being the Queen Mother Champion Chase, the Stayers’ Hurdle and last, but by no means least, the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Upper Lambourn trainer Nicky Henderson already has nine winners to his name, including four of the last ten, and looks to have bright prospects of reaching double-figures with the hitherto unbeaten Constitution Hill.

An impressive nine-length winner in 2023, Constitution Hill missed the chance to defend his Champion Hurdle crown because of a respiratory problem, but has returned to action after a year off to extend his winning streak to ten races under rules. On the first of his two starts, so far, in 2024/25 , he beat Lossiemouth, trained by Willie Mullins, by two-and-a-half lengths in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton Park on Boxing Day and is currently a top-priced 8/13 to confirm the form at Cheltenham.

County Meath trainer Gordon Elliott has yet to win the Champion Hurdle, but could saddle the six-year-old mare Brighterdaysahead, who has tasted defeat just once in her seven-race career, when second in the Dawn Run Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle at the 2024 Cheltenham Festival. A facile, 30-length winner of the Neville Hotels Hurdle at Leopardstown in December – a race in which the reigning Champion Hurdler State Man was only third – she is next best in the ante-post odds at 3/1. Brighterdaysahead is also entered in the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle, for which she is 5/4 favourite, but looks a bona fide Champion Hurdle contender. Cheltenham Festival odds are found to fluctuate as the festival approaches, but this is the current state of play.

 

Cheltenham Festival Free Bet Offer:  https://blog.betway.com/horse-racing/countdown-to-cheltenham-earn-over-pound100-in-free-bets-1/

What is, or was, the Great Jubilee Handicap?

What is, or was, the Great Jubilee Handicap? The Great Jubilee Handicap, as it was originally known, was inugurated in 1887 to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria, who acceded to the throne on June 20, 1837. Run over a mile at Kempton Park, which opened in 1878, as one of the first purpose-built, enclosed racecourses in the country, the Great Jubilee Handicap was, in its heyday, a highly competitive, attractive betting heat, attracting widespread ante-post interest. Indeed, ‘The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News’ reported that the 1904 renewal, which was won for the second year running by Ypsilanti, who was conceding no less than 52lb to runner-up Cerisier, ‘was worth going miles to see’.

However, throughout the twentieth century, the Great Jubilee Handicap gradually fell from favour and, by the time it was last run on turf, as the ‘Johnno Spence Consulting Jubilee Handicap’ – the ‘Great’ epithet having long been a thing of the past – on May 2, 2005, it was just another run-of-the-mill handicap. For the record, the winner of the £9,323.60 first prize on that occasion was the five-year-old San Antonio, trained by Pam Sly and ridden by Willie Supple.

Shortly afterwards, Kempton Park closed for the installation of its original, synthetic Polytrack racing surface and, when racing resumed in March, 2006, the traditional ‘Jubilee Course’ was no longer in use. Previously, the Jubilee Course, which was a mile and a quarter in extent, joined the main right-handed, triangular course at the top of the home straight, thereby creating what author John Rickman described in ‘Homes of Sport’ as ‘two straight stretches joined by a right-hand bend.’ However, with Flat racing on turf no longer staged at Kempton Park, the course has been left to return to nature.

When did Desert Orchid run his last race?

When did Desert Orchid run his last race? In short, Desert Orchid ran his last race on December 26, 1991, in the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park. By then a 12-year-old, ‘Dessie’ was attempting to win the Boxing Day showpiece for the fifth time in six years, having prevailed in 1986, 1988, 1989 and 1990 and finished second, albeit at a respectful distance of 15 lengths, behind surprise winner Nupsala. However, on his final foray at the Sunbury-on-Thames course, despite being sent off 4-1 joint third favourite of the eight runners, behind Remittance Man and Sabin Du Loir, the iconic grey never really looked like winning and had already weakened out of contention when falling at the third-last fence.

It would be fair to say that it a disappointing end to a long, illustrious career, which saw Desert Orchid win 34 of his 70 races and over £650,000 in prize money. No slouch over the smaller obstacles, he was actually sent off second favourite for the 1984 Champion Hurdle, famously won by Dawn Run, but it was a bold, front-running steeplechaser that he would eventually find fame. Hugely versatile, distance-wise, Desert Orchid won the Tingle Creek Chase and Victor Chandler Chase, both over the minimum trip, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, over an extended 3 miles and 2½ furlongs, the Irish Grand National, over 3 miles and 4 furlongs, and the Whitbread Gold Cup, over an extended 3 miles and 5 furlongs.

It was testament to his status as a steeplechaser that, on March 16, 1989, despite being a stone better going right-handed, according to jockey Simon Sherwood, Desert Orchid was sent off 5/2 favourite for the Cheltenham Gold Cup, run on unfavourable heavy going. He looked beaten on the run to the final fence, but rallied gamely on the climb to the line to beat Yahoo, who relished the conditions, by 1½ lengths.

Which former American professional jockey masqueraded as an amateur in Britain?

Which former American professional jockey masqueraded as an amateur in Britain? The old adage, ‘If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is’ is not always correct but, in the summer of 1998, it certainly was. The previous year, Puerto Rican-born Angel Jacobs had begun riding work on Newmarket Heath and quickly attracted favourable attention for his accomplished, professional technique. Jacobs subsequently embarked on a career as an amateur jockey, riding his first winner, Bold Faith, trained by Willie Musson, in a lowly Class E handicap, restricted to gentleman amateur riders, at Newbury on June 11, 1998. All told, he rode five winners from 21 rides, at a strike rate of 24%, culminating in victory for Gymcrak Flyer, trained by Gordon Holmes, in a similar race at Beverley on August 13.

Holmes said later that he considered Jacobs ‘a very good amateur to use’ and he was right, insofar as ‘Jacobs’ was, in fact, was former American professional jockey Angel Monserrate. Investigation by the British Amateur Jockeys’ Association revealed that Monserrate had ridden professionally in the United States before being banned after failing a drugs test in 1995. The following year, he adopted the pseudonym ‘Carlos Castro’ and began riding as an amateur, but he was exposed as an imposter by a former employer at Aqueduct Racetrack in New York after riding a winner, arrested and taken away in handcuffs.

Once his latest attempt at subterfuge was revealed, the Jockey Club took a dim view of his actions, disqualifying all five of his winners on the grounds that he was ineligible for races restricted to amateur riders, suspending his licence with immediate effect and later, banning him for ten years. Following his hearing at Portman Square, Monserrate declined to comment but, speaking on his behalf, his wife, Lisa, said later, ‘He just loves riding racehorses and was desperate to carry on. In amateur races he gets paid no money.’

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