The Stayers’ Hurdle is a Grade 1 hurdle race run over 2 miles, 7 furlongs and 213 yards on the New Course at Cheltenham in March. Open to horses aged four years and upwards, and worth $325,000 in total prize money, the Stayers’ Hurdle is the feature race on the third day of four-day Cheltenham Festival. The race was inaugurated, in its current guise, in 1972, when it replaced the Spa Hurdle, which was a part of the Festival programme between 1946 and 1967, and again in 1971.
Throughout its modern existence, the Stayers’ Hurdle has had various sponsors, namely Lloyds Bank, Waterford Crystal, Bonusprint, Sun Bets, Sun Racing and Paddy Power. Between 2005 and 2015, Ladbrokes took over sponsorship and changed the race title to the ‘World Hurdle’, although the ‘Stayers Hurdle’ title was restored when the sponsorship came to an end in 2016.
Ditcheat trainer Paul Nicholls is the most successful handler in the history of the Stayers’ Hurdle, thanks solely to the exploits of the prolific Big Buck’s who won the staying crown four times, in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, as part of an 18-race winning streak. Looking ahead to the 2023 renewal, scheduled for 3:30pm on Thursday, March 16, the ante-post market is well formed, with the 2020 and 2021 winner, Flooring Porter, unsurprisingly at the head of affairs. Again, not-altogether-surprisingly, Irish-trained horses fill the first seven places in the ante-post betting, with Buzz, trained by Nicky Henderson, the shortest-priced of the home contingent, at 14/1.
Statistics-wise, Henderson has a dismal record, though, having saddled a total of 17 losers, and no winners, in the last 20 renewals of the Stayers’ Hurdle. Prospective punters might like to bear in mind that the majority of winners in that period had made fewer than five starts during the current season and had previously been placed, at least, in Grade 1 company.