Category: Horse Racing

Born in Lambeth, South London on December 10, 1950, Nicholas ‘Nicky’ Henderson first took out a training licence in his own right in 1978, having previously spent four years as assistant trainer to the legendary Fred Winter at Upland Stables in Upper Lambourn, Hungerford. Henderson saddled his first winner, Dukery, at Uttoxeter in October, 1978 and has since become the second most prolific trainer in the history of the Cheltenham Festival, behind only Willie Mullins.

Indeed, Henderson has won the leading trainer award at the March showpiece on three occasions, in 2000, 2010 and 2012, and his career haul of 73 winners includes the Queen Mother Champion Chase six times and the Arkle Challenge Trophy and the Triumph Hurdle seven times apiece. However, the Cheltenham Festival race that the veteran handler has won most often is the two-mile hurdling championship, the Champion Hurdle.

From his original training base at Windsor House Stables, Henderson sent out the hugely talented, but fragile, See You Then to win the Champion Hurdle three years running in 1985, 1986 and 1987. He later said of the Royal Palace gelding, ‘See You Then was the horse that made things happen really. He changed life. He was a great horse.’

In 1992, Henderson moved his operation to nearby Seven Barrows and, after a 22-year hiatus, won the Champion Hurdle again with Punjabi in 2009. Punjabi had won the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle, but fallen heavily at the second-last flight when favourite for the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton, so missed out on the £1,000,000 bonus awarded by World Bet Exchange (WBX) for winning the so-called ‘Triple Crown of Hurdling’. More recently, Henderson has saddled Binocular (2010), Buveur d’Air (2017 and 2018), Epatante (2020) and Constitution Hill (2023) for a total of nine wins in the Champion Hurdle.

Best known as the home of the fifth and final British Classic, the St. Leger Stakes, Doncaster Racecourse, in South Yorkshire, has a long, rich history dating back to the sixteenth century. However, the St. Leger Stakes, named after its founder, Anthony St. Leger, was not run under its current name, in its current location, on Town Moor, until 1778.

Nevertheless, the St. Leger Stakes is the oldest of the Classic races and one of two Group 1 races run at Doncaster, the other being the Futurity Stakes in late October. The four-day St. Leger Festival in September also features half a dozen Group 2 races, namely the May Hill Stakes, Park Hill Stakes, Flying Childers Stakes, Doncaster Cup, Champagne Stakes and Park Stakes.

Doncaster also has the distinction of opening and closing the Flat season, on turf at least, with the Lincoln Meeting, in late March or early April, and the November Handicap Meeting. The remainder of the season is devoted to National Hunt racing, with principal races including the Great Yorkshire Chase in January and the Grimthorpe Chase in late February or early March.

Doncaster Racecourse is left-handed, galloping and, apart from a slight uphill climb over Rose Hill, a mile and a quarter from home, essentially flat. On the Flat, races up to a mile are run on the straight course, but there is also a round mile. Well-drained soil means that underfoot conditions rarely becoming testing, even during the winter months, such that the course provides a sound, but fair, test of racing ability.

Epsom Downs Racecourse, as the name suggests, is situated at the foot of the North Downs, near Epsom, Surrey in South East England. Epsom is best known as the home of the Derby Festival, which is staged annually on the first weekend in June and features the third and fourth Classic races of the season, the Oaks and the Derby. Both races have a long, rich history, having been established in 1779 and 1780, respectively, but the Derby – which, at the last count, offered £1.5 million in total prize money – is by far the more prestigious and valuable of the pair. The roll of honour features the likes of Sea Bird, Mill Reef, Shergar and Sea The Stars, to name but four of the notable winners.

The Oaks and the Derby and, indeed, the Coronation Cup – a Group 1 race open to older horses – are run over a mile and a half on a left-handed, U-shaped course characterised by pronounced undulation. Runners ascend steeply for the first half a mile, before descending equally steeply, around Tattenham Corner, into the home straight, which rises again in the final furlong.

Epsom is essentially sharp for the last mile or so, particularly so on the five-furlong sprint course, which is officially the fastest in the world. On June 2, 2012, Stone Of Folca, trained by John Best and ridden by Luke Morris, won the Epsom Dash in a time of 53.69 seconds, thereby setting a world record as the fastest horse over five furlongs.

Run over three miles on the New Course at Cheltenham, the Stayers’ Hurdle has existed in its current guise since 1972. However, since the Festival Trophy, better known, for sponsorship purposes, as the Ryanair Chase, was promoted to Grade 1 status in 2008, the long-distance hurdling championship has become the second of two feature races run on day three of the Cheltenham Festival.

In the five-and-a-bit decades since modern renewals began, half a dozen horses have won the Stayers’ Hurdle more than once. The first of them was Crimson Embers, trained by the legendary Fulke Walwyn, who won in 1982, as a seven-year-old, and again four years later, thereby providing Walwyn with the fortieth and final Festival winner of his career.

Long before Irish dominance of the Festival, Galmoy recorded back-to-back victories for John Mulhern and Tommy Carmody in 1987 and 1988 and the French-trained Baracouda did likewise for

Francois and Thierry Doumen in 2002 and 2003. Inglis Drever, trained by the subsequently disgraced Howard Johnson, went one better, winning the Stayers’ Hurdle three times, in 2005, 2007 and 2008.

Indeed, Inglis Drever may well have completed a four-timer, but for missing the 2006 Cheltenham Festival with a tendon injury. The redoubtable Big Buck’s, trained by Paul Nicholls, did just that,

in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, having returned to the small obstacles following an abortive chasing career. Most recently, Flooring Porter, trained by Gavin Cromwell, was the latest back-to-back winner for Ireland, in 2021 and 2022.