Champion Hurdle Preview, Tips, Runners & Trends (Cheltenham Festival)

2025 Champion Hurdle Preview

A two-mile Champion Hurdle for the fastest hurdlers in national hunt racing, and the ability to travel well at speed and hurdle without losing momentum is crucial in this race at the Cheltenham racecourse.

Make sure to have a read of the Best Bookies for Cheltenham and Best Bookie for BOG so you get the most out of your festival betting.

Champion Hurdle Information:

• Champion Hurdle Past Winners
• Champion Hurdle Trainer Statistics
• Champion Hurdle Jockey Statistics

Why not use the trends shortlist below to help you narrow down the field and then head over to the dedicated Cheltenham tips page to see which runners are being supported by the OLBG expert racing tipsters to find yourself a bet? We cover every race at the Cheltenham Festival and below you can find links to all of the races for each of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday.

How competitive is the Champion Hurdle market? When looking at the over-rounds for the last 20 renewals, the most competitive market was in 2023 when the race had an over-round of 108%. The race in 2020 was a race that was most in the bookie's favour with an over-round of 128%, whilst on average over the last 20 renewals of the Champion Hurdle, the over-round has been 118%, which means the bookie expects to pay out £100 for every £118 which is bet.

Champion Hurdle Trends:

• 2025 Champion Hurdle Trends
• Champion Hurdle Trend Analysis

Looking at the future form, is the winner worth following next time out? From the past 20 if you had followed the winner of the Champion Hurdle next time out then you would have backed a total of 12 winners. Backing all 18 runners who have been out since to win at SP next time out, would have returned an LSP of -0.26. Whilst we wait for the 2025 Champion Hurdle remember you can get daily racing predictions from the expert tipsters on the racing predictions page.

Over the last 20 renewals, it was the W P Mullins trained Annie Power ridden by R Walsh who set the fastest winning time in the Champion Hurdle, the runner won the race in a time of 3:45.10 was set when winning the race in 2016. At the other end of the scale, it was the combination of trainer W P Mullins and jockey Paul Townend with State Man who set the slowest winning time, the race-winning time was 4:13.88 in the 2024 renewal.

These are the top three quickest-run Champion Hurdle over the last 20 renewals:

1. Annie Power (3:45.10) in 2016
2. Jezki (3:45.25) in 2014
3. Brave Inca (3:50.00) in 2006

Champion Hurdle Past Winners

Here are the Champion Hurdle past winners for the last 10 renewals. Each row details the year of the race, the horse which won along with the age & weight of the horse. The trainer of the horse at the time of winning the Champion Hurdle as well as the jockey is also displayed along with the starting price the horse was sent off.

Where have the winning runners come from?

Here are the countries where the winning trainers of the Champion Hurdle have been based:

• IRE: 12 winners with an additional 19 placings from 100 runners
• GB: 8 winners with an additional 20 placings from 131 runners
• FR: 0 winners with an additional 0 placings from 3 runners
• GER: 0 winners with an additional 0 placings from 1 runner

Champion Hurdle Trainer Statistics

The leading trainer in the Champion Hurdle over the last 20 renewals is Nicky Henderson who has won the race six times with those six winners coming from Punjabi (2009), Binocular (2010), Buveur DAir (2017 & 2018), Epatante (2020) and Constitution Hill (2023). Other trainers who have recorded multiple wins in the Champion Hurdle are W P Mullins (5 wins) and Henry De Bromhead (2 wins).

Here are some of the top Champion Hurdle trainer statistics over the last 20 renewals (R = Runners, W = Winners, P = Places including winners, Win LSP is based on 1pt Win and EW LSP is based on 0.5pt Win & 0.5pt Place):

Champion Hurdle Jockey Statistics

The leading jockey in the Champion Hurdle over the last 20 renewals is Rachael Blackmore who has won the race two times with those two winners coming from Honeysuckle (2021 & 2022).

Here are some of the top Champion Hurdle jockey statistics over the last 20 renewals (R = Runners, W = Winners, P = Places including winners, Win LSP is based on 1pt Win and EW LSP is based on 0.5pt Win & 0.5pt Place):

2025 Champion Hurdle Trends

Favourites finishing positions (oldest to latest): (1, 9), 1, 6, 14, 3, 10, 1, 3, 1, 4, 1, 1, DSQ, 1, 6, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

The percentage shown is the percentage of the total number of runners who fell under that factor. High percentages are less appealing than lower ones as you would expect them to do well.

• 20 / 20 (51%) - Break of 24 - 108 days (Last Win)
• 20 / 20 (51%) - No bigger than 3/1 (LTO)
• 20 / 20 (55%) - Break of 24 - 78 days (Last Place)
• 20 / 20 (61%) - No bigger than 22/1
• 20 / 20 (66%) - Had 1 - 3 wins (180 Days)
• 20 / 20 (69%) - No bigger than 7/2 (Last Win)
• 20 / 20 (79%) - Off a break of 24 - 78 days
• 20 / 20 (79%) - Made 1 - 14 starts (Jockey)
• 20 / 20 (80%) - Placed within last 2 starts
• 20 / 20 (80%) - No bigger than 33/1 (Career)
• 20 / 20 (82%) - Had 5 - 18 wins (Career)
• 20 / 20 (83%) - Had 1 - 4 placings (Season)
• 20 / 20 (83%) - Beaten no more -11½l (LTO)
• 20 / 20 (83%) - Achieved a TS of 99+ (Class)
• 20 / 20 (86%) - Not BB/BR/GR/RG in colour

Remember to use the trends listed above along with the Cheltenham racing predictions to see if you can find the winner of the Champion Hurdle. if you are unaware of what trends and statistics are, how they can be used etc then head over to the OLBG Betting School and read this Stats And Trends article which will make everything much clearer.

Are you already a member? If not, then why not? With over £6,000 given away each month in the tipster competition, why not get involved? Remember, It is completely FREE! So, head over to the registration page to sign up today! If you are already a member, then share your thoughts on the Champion Hurdle by adding a tip on the race here.

Champion Hurdle Trend Analysis

The trend factor which had produced 10+ winners and shows the best LSP, an LSP of +9.19 is when runners were 1st in the betting market. The worst performing factor that has failed to produce a single winner is when runners had 0 places in the past 90 days, when backing these the trend shows a record of 0-80.

The course which has produced the most winners of the Champion Hurdle is Leopardstown, there has been a total number of 7 winners of this race who ran at Leopardstown last time out. The next best course which has produced the second most winners is Kempton, there has been a total number of 4 winners of this race who ran at Kempton last time out.

The race is open to both sexes with the Male runners having produced a total of 16 winners from a total of 222 runners whilst the Female runners have produced 4 winners from a total of 13 runners.

Looking over the past renewals, these are the stallions whose offspring have produced multiple winners of the Champion Hurdle:

• Crillon (2 Wins)
• Montjeu (2 Wins)
• Sulamani (2 Wins)

These are the stallions whose offspring have not produced a winner of the Champion Hurdle despite multiple attempts:

• Beat Hollow (0 Wins from 8 runners)
• Kings Theatre (0 Wins from 7 runners)
• Perugino (0 Wins from 6 runners)

Looking at the winning odds over the last 20 renewals, the biggest-priced winner was Punjabi in 2009, winning for Nicky Henderson at odds of 22/1 under the guidance of Barry Geraghty. Looking at the runners at the head of the market over the last 20 renewals there have been 12 winning favourites in the race. Ahead of the 2025 Champion Hurdle why not head over to the best racing tipster page to see what the tipsters are backing today?

Schedule for Tuesday at the Cheltenham Festival

Prepare for the ROAR of the Cheltenham Festival on the opening day when the tape goes up for the Supreme Novices Hurdle, the feature on Tuesday is the Champion Hurdle.

Schedule for Wednesday at the Cheltenham Festival

The dust has settled on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival and now on to day two. The feature on the second day is the Queen Mother Champion Chase. We also have the cross country scheduled on Wednesday, a race like Marmite, some love it and some don't!

Schedule for Thursday at the Cheltenham Festival

Halfway through the festival and onto day three where the Stayers Hurdle is the feature race. A hurdle race to test the stamina and see how can last best up the Cheltenham hill.

Schedule for Friday at the Cheltenham Festival

The final day of the festival and feature race that we have all been waiting for, the Cheltenham Gold Cup in which the Irish have been fairly dominant in recent years.