Champion Day 12th March 2024 – Cheltenham Festival Day One

Race 1 - Supreme Novices' Hurdle - 13:30

That famous Cheltenham Roar we mentioned before is how you know that the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle is well under way. This Grade 1 race is run on the Old Course and lasts for two miles and eighty-seven yards (2m, 87y). It features eight hurdles and, as the name suggests, is for novice hurdlers.

The race is for horses aged four or over and they should have a weight of ten stone, thirteen pounds. Horses of five or older see that shift to eleven stone, seven pounds, whilst both fillies and mares have a seven pound allowance. The leading jockey in this race is Ruby Walsh with six wins and the leading trainer is Willie Mullins, with seven wins.

Race 2 - Arkle Challenge Trophy - 14:10

Named after one of the most famous horses in the history of the Festival, this Grade 1 race also takes place on the Old Course. In fact, all of the first day’s races are run on the Old Course and they’re all run left-handed, so you can just assume both of those things for the rest of this page. Open to novice chasers aged five years and up, the weight allowance is eleven stone four pounds with a seven pound allowance for mares.

The race is typical run at a tremendous pace, which is not to be sniffed at considering it’s run over one mile, seven furlongs and one hundred and ninety nine yards (1m, 7f, 199y) and features thirteen fences. Prior to 1980 it was run on Day Two of the Festival, but it was moved in that year and has remained on Day One ever since. Barry Geraghty and Ruby Walsh are the leading jockeys with four wins each, whilst Nicky Henderson’s seven victories make him the leading trainer.

Race 3 - Ultima Handicap Chase - 14:50

Though the Gold Cup might be the most prestigious race of the entire week and the Champion Hurdle is the race Day One is centered around, the Festival Trophy Handicap Chase might be the most competitive one run at the Festival. It is open to horses aged five and older and typically features quite a large field. The Premier Handicap (formerly Grade 3) race takes place over a distance of three miles and one furlong (3m, 1f), during which the horses must jump twenty fences.

Owing to both its length and the number of jumps, it can often turn into something of a war of attrition between the horses that take part in it. Usually the winner will enter the Grand National as a favourite, such is the ferocity of the race. Weight-wise it is a handicap race, so the handicapper will assign different amounts in order to make it as level a playing field as possible. Records of winners only go back as far as 1946, but since then Robert Thornton has been the most successful jockey with three wins and both Fred Rimell and Fulke Walwyn have achieved four wins as trainers.

Race 4 - The Champion Hurdle - 15:30

The Champion Hurdle is absolutely the most exciting and looked-out-for race of Day One at the Cheltenham Festival. It is, of course, a Grade 1 race and is open to four year old and over with a weight of eleven stone two pounds. If the horse is over five then that shifts to eleven stone ten pounds and both fillies and mares get a seven pound allowance. Run over two miles and eight-seven yards (2m, 87y) and featuring eight hurdles, this race decides on the champion of the hurdles division for the year.

The Champion Hurdle comes after The Fighting Fifth Hurdle, which is run at Newcastle Racecourse, and The Christmas Hurdle, run at Kempton Park Racecourse, as the final leg of the Triple Crown of Hurdling. Only a horse named Kribensis has won all three, an achievement accomplished with Richard Dunwoody on his back in the 1989-1990 season. Tim Molony, Barry Geraghty and Ruby Walsh have won this four times as jockeys, whilst Nicky Henderson is once again the leading trainer with nine wins.  Rachael Blackmore became the first woman to win the race in 2021 with Honeysuckle and then went on to claim back-to-back wins thanks to her win on the same horse in 2022.

This race has an astonishing record for favourites winning at a huge 52% since 2000.  Indeed, Constitution Hill was the shortest priced winner ever in 2023 at 11/4.

Race 5 - Close Brothers Mares' Hurdle - 16:10

The Mares’ Hurdle is one of the youngest races at the Cheltenham Festival, having only been inaugurated back in 2008. That year it was held on the final day of the meeting but it was moved to Day One in 2009 and has remained there since. Run over two miles, three furlongs and two-hundred yards (2m, 3f, 200y), the Grade 1 race is open to four year olds and up. Weight-wise you’re looking at ten stone ten pounds for four year olds and eleven stone five pounds for horses over five.

If you’ve ever heard the expression 'a one horse race' then it could easily have come from this one: From 2009 to to 2014 it was one by just one horse named Quevega. Featuring ten hurdles, this started life as a Grade 2 race saw it move to Grade 1 in 2015. The most successful jockey in the event is Ruby Walsh, who rode Quevega all six times and then won again in 2016 and 2018. Willie Mullins trained Quevega and has also trained three other winning horses, making him the most successful trainer in the race with nine victories.

Race 6 - Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle - 16:50

The Juvenile Novices' Handicap Hurdle was established back in 2005 when the Festival was extended over four days rather than the previous three. The Premier Handicap event is open to novice horses aged four and up and it is a handicap race. Run over two miles and eighty-seven yards (2m, 87y), it has eight jumps that need to be cleared if a horse is hoping to be crowned the victor.

The race is named in honour of Fred Winter, a man who picked up seventeen wins as a jockey at the Cheltenham Festival and who then went on to win twenty-eight times as a trainer. Interestingly, no jockey has ever won the Juvenile Novices’ Handicap Hurdle on more than one occasion and only Paul Nicholls and Gordon Elliot have done so as a trainer, picking up three and four wins respectively each during their careers.

In 2020 the Fred Winter moved from Ladies Day to Champion Day to accommodate a new Mares' Chase on Gold Cup Day.

Race 7 - National Hunt Chase - 17:30

Open to novice chasers that are ridden by amateur jockeys, the National Hunt Chase is the last race of the first day of the Festival. It’s a Grade 2 race that features twenty-three fences jumped over a gruelling three and three quarter miles (3m, 5f, 201y). As well as being a novice the horses must also be over five years of age and weight eleven stone four pounds, or eleven stone six pounds if they’re over six years of age. Having said that, there is a seven pound allowance for mares.

Though the Gold Cup is now the most important race at the Festival, the meeting would never have been the event that it is if the racecourse hadn’t persuaded the National Hunt Committee to allow the National Hunt Chase to be moved to Cheltenham permanently back in 1911. It is the longest race of the week and from 2005 to 2007 was actually run on the New Course. Interestingly, no horse has won the race twice and only two jockeys, Jamie Codd and Patrick Mullins, have won it three and four times respectively (since 1946).  Jonjo O'Neill is the leading trainer with 6 victories.