Last Ran: 16th March 2010

The Champion Hurdle is held at Cheltenham racecourse and is part of the Cheltenham Festival.

The race is a Grade 1 National Hunt race for four-year-olds and above, the distance is 2 miles and is the highlight race of the first day of the Festival which is held in March.

There are two courses at Cheltenham and the Champion Hurdle is run on the old course, the horses have to tackle eight hurdles in all.

In 2007 Sublimity won the race with odds of 16/1 however this horse had earlier been backed at 600/1! Despite this records show that generally there is rarely a shock with the favourites doing well.

Those that have previously won the Supreme Novices Hurdle generally do well here and when looking to pick the winner look for horses that have been succesful over hurdles further than two miles. The course at Cheltenham is a stiff task for the horses and this is where stamina will play its part.

This years race looks to be a competative one with a mix of new equine stars and those with experience in prestige events including past winners here such as Hardy Eustace in 2004 and 2005.

Trends for the Champion Hurdle

• Look for horses that won last time out, 22 of the last 26 winners won on their last outing.
• Just the one five year old has won here in at least the last decade.
• Just one horse over the age of eight has won here in at least the last decade
• Horses that have previously run well at Cheltenham have a good record
• Horses that are towards the top of the betting have a good record with 17 of the last 18 renewals seeing a winner from the top 6.

• Queen Mother Champion Chase (17th March 2010)
• Champion Bumper (17th March 2010)
• Cheltenham Novices Hurdle (17th March 2010)
• Royal Sun Alliance Chase (17th March 2010)
• Fred Winter Juvenile Hurdle (17th March 2010)