FESTIVAL TRIALS DAY 28 JANUARY 2023
races in the same calendar year. In 2008, Inglis Drever landed the race on route to his third Stayers’ Hurdle crown, while the mighty Big Buck’s won the 2009 and 2012 renewals ahead of claiming what would be the first and last of his record four Stayers’ Hurdle successes. Thistlecrack achieved the same double in 2016, as did Paisley Park in 2019, which was the first of three Cleeve Hurdle successes for the Emma Lavelle- trained gelding, having subsequently landed both the 2020 and 2022 events. And while the Cotswold Chase and Cleeve Hurdle might take star billing, both the Grade Two Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle and Grade Two JCB Triumph Trial Juvenile Hurdle often prove to be informative contests that can have an important bearing on results at The Festival.
thrown up other future Festival winners, with the Paul Nicholls-trained Frodon claiming the 2019 edition just weeks before landing the Ryanair Chase on the biggest stage of them all. In recent times, the closest any horse has come to completing the unique Cotswold Chase-Gold Cup double in the same season was the then-Nicky Henderson-trained Santini, who, after winning the first leg, was denied Cheltenham Gold Cup glory by a neck behind Al Boum Photo. The feature hurdles race on the card is the Grade Two Cleeve Hurdle, which, like the Cotswold Chase, boasts an impressive list of previous winners. Since it was switched to its current distance of three miles in 2005, it has developed into a useful pointer for the Grade One Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle at The Festival with a number of horses winning both
“The seven-race card gives horses destined for one of the 28 contests during Festival week a last chance for a dress rehearsal”
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