The last three winners of the Stayers Hurdle
When it comes to the horse racing calendar, there are few dates bigger than the Cheltenham Festival. Perhaps the most prestigious four days of the year, Prestbury Park welcomes the best horses, jockeys, and trainers to Gloucestershire in some of the most competitive races around. Indeed, last year’s event was the first time since 2020 crowds were on hand to witness the famous Cheltenham roar, and it felt as if the atmosphere was amped up a few notches due to that long wait.
One of the most interesting races on the schedule is Thursday’s Stayers Hurdle. The Grade 1 race is a gruelling three-mile slog, where the horses will navigate 12 different hurdles to reign victorious. Those checking this year’s Stayers Hurdle betting will see the likes of Teahupoo, Klassical Dream and recent Gowran Park winner Sir Gerhard amongst the favourites, but can any prevent Flooring Porter from making it a hat-trick of victories?
It will be interesting to see how things go down on St Patricks Day, as we look at one of the most competitive Stayers Hurdles in recent years. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the last three winners of the race and assess how they picked up first place at Prestbury Park. Read on to find out more.
Flooring Porter 2022, 2021
As mentioned, the last two Stayers Hurdles have been won by Flooring Porter. The Gavin Cromwell-trained eight-year-old has dominated proceedings in this race since 2021, first pipping Sire Du Berlais as something of an outsider behind closed doors before last year’s victory by two and three-quarter lengths. It was a superb ride by Danny Mullins who won successive races for the first time in his Cheltenham career, and despite injury concerns this year, Cromwell believes he could well pick up the hat-trick.
“He’s done plenty of work and has taken it all good so far, so we’re pretty optimistic at this stage,” he said. “A few horses have come into it over the last few weeks and we’re just hoping we can get our horse back to Cheltenham in the same nick he has been the last two years.”
Lisnagar Oscar – 2020
The Cheltenham Festival is always full of surprises and that was apparent in the 2020 Stayers Hurdle when 50/1 longshot Lisnagar Oscar upset all the odds. It was Rebecca Curtis’ first Cheltenham success in five years and few would have imagined it would come on Lisnagar Oscar, a horse that wasn’t fancied in the build-up to the race. It was also a first Festival for Adam Wedge, who was brilliant on the day as the pair held out to beat Ronald Pump and fellow underdog Bacardys, who was 33/1. It just goes to show the unpredictability of a big race at Cheltenham.
Paisley Park – 2019
It took Emma Lavelle 20 years for a first Grade 1 victory, but it finally arrived at the end of 2018 when Paisley Park won the G1 Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot in December. Carrying that momentum into the Cheltenham Festival she picked up successive wins as Paisley Park beat Sam Spinner and favourite Faugheen to carry on a fabulous winning run that would take her success through Newbury and into 2020 before defeat to Lisnagar Oscar. Running in this year’s race, Lavelle believes she has what it takes to pick up another Grade 1 win after a good run at Kempton.
“Paisley Park has come out of the Cleeve Hurdle well and seems in good order,” she said. “He has had an easy time of it since, but we will start to build him back up for the Stayers’ Hurdle this week and roll into Cheltenham.
