CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL 12 - 15 MARCH 2024
CHAMPION DAY The countdown to the Cheltenham Festival is a wait like no other and if you press them hard enough, there are plenty of Jump racing fans who will admit that the anticipation to Cheltenham begins the minute the gates close on Gold Cup Day the year before. And when the waiting is finally over, Champion Day kicks it off in style, with four Grade One contests across the seven-race card.
T here’s seldom an opportunity to pause for breath during Cheltenham Festival week, but the line-up for the first day has a particularly breathless feel to it, with each of the four top-level races having a knack for producing memorable moments. The feature is the Unibet Champion Hurdle, a two-mile contest and the first of the five Championship races to take place across the four days. The race is the ultimate test of speed and to scan down the Champion Hurdle’s roll of honour is to familiarise yourself with a who’s who of some of the greatest racehorses to have graced the hallowed Cheltenham turf. Constitution Hill, Hurricane Fly, Istabraq, Persian War, See You Then, Sea Pigeon, Hatton’s Grace, Night Nurse, Monksfield – the list is exhaustive. The 2021 and 2022 renewals went to the outstanding mare Honeysuckle. Rachael Blackmore created history by becoming the first female jockey to win the Champion Hurdle when the pair came home six and a half lengths clear in 2021. Further history was made in 2022 when Honeysuckle became the first mare to win more than one Champion Hurdle as she came home three and a half lengths to the good over 2020 winner Epatante.
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