That "oh, $&%#*" moment - Champion Hurdle 2025

[Mara]

No horse injuries/deaths

The Cheltenham Festival started today, showcasing the top hurdlers and chasers in the UK, Ireland, and Europe. (Most runners are English or Irish, but the French participate as well).

It’s not being shown anywhere in North America but the Racing Post website covers it up to the minute.

Today’s feature was the Champion Hurdle, and it was a foregone conclusion that Constitution Hill, the unbeaten 2023 winner, would be first past the post. But he fell four fences from home. Another well-backed runner was State Man, who won last year when Constitution Hill was out sick. He misjudged the last fence and fell; the mare Golden Ace won.

This photo, though…

[Simkie]

@Mara

It’s not being shown anywhere in North America but the Racing Post website covers it up to the minute.

FanDuel on cable is covering it!

I’m not sure if I watched this one, but several races had quite a lot of heart stopping moments. The end of the 7th was really pretty scary with several horses down. I hope everyone was okay.

[Mara]

According to the chart for the last race, three horses were pulled up, two fell, one was brought down by another horse, and one unseated the rider.

It does not mention any critical injuries or deaths.

[Simkie]

@Mara

two fell, one was brought down by another horse, and one unseated the rider.

Without looking at the replay, I think all this happened at the last two flights. It was just a lot all at once. Scary.

@Mara

It does not mention any critical injuries or deaths.

That’s good to know!

[MHM]

Out of how many starters?

[Simkie]

17:20 | Cheltenham | Tuesday 11th March 2025 | At The Races

The third was wild, 24 starters. 12 finished.

[Mara]

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

[Simkie]

Just a quick Google pops this for replays:

https://www.racingtv.com/watch/replays/2025-03-11/cheltenham/1720

I haven’t watched so haven’t confirmed but what I recall is a horse went down over the second to last flight and took a couple others with it, then another stumbled and either fell or just unseated the jockey after the last flight.

It looks like you can watch the whole card there. I gotta say, hurdles are terrifying. The horses often just trip over them. At least there’s (usually) a jumping effort over the timber.

The third was kinda weird in that there were several false starts and they finally just did a standing start at the tape.

[Mara]

Yay; I was getting “not available in your region” messages when I tried to pull up RacingTV yesterday. But that was on my phone.

Yeah, the hurdles look as though they’d be easier than timber, until you see it in action. I think if State Man had taken off just five inches ahead of where he did he might have won.

It was a heartbreaker for Constitution Hill’s connections; he missed all of the '23-24 season due to wind surgery, then injury, and then a virus knocked him out.

[MHM]

Thanks.

[Mara]

Winner of today’s Grade 1 Novice Hurdle, at 2 miles 5 furlongs, is trained by British Olympic gold medalist Nick Skelton’s son Dan.

[Frolic]

And ridden by his son Harry!

[MHM]

Nice that they’re keeping it in the family business!

[Mara]

“Hey Dad, you like to ride horses fast over big sticks? Watch this!”

They’ve got a pretty successful yard.