Cheltenham Festival Day One reaction: David Ord on a dramatic Champion Hurdle

By David Ord

Sporting Life Plus

Wed March 12, 2025 · 3d ago

Our man at the track reacts to a remarkable Unibet Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham.

When you get to 52 and have worked at 30 Cheltenham Festivals you think you’ve seen it all.

Then you witness the 2025 Unibet Champion Hurdle.

The history books will show Golden Ace (25/1) beat Burdett Road (66/1) in a complete boilover. But we’ll remember it for two falls.

The first came at the top of the hill. The race was following the anticipated script as King Of Kingsfield towed Brighterdaysahead along and in third was Constitution Hill.

But you can have all the ability in the world, and we hoped and the market suggested he still had, but if you don’t get luck too you won’t have the opportunity to showcase it. And when the horse in front of him clipped the obstacle and it rocked forwards and backwards, the former champion was already airborne. He had no answer and slithered to the ground.

There are huge groans from the grandstand and you look on desperately, “get up, please get up.”

And he does.

Racegoers react to the Champion Hurdle drama

There’s still a Champion Hurdle to be won. Down the hill they come. Brighterdaysahead leads now but in behind State Man is stalking. It’s clear to anyone he has her measure.

Paul Townend takes him to the front turning in, angles towards the stands rail and takes dead aim at the final flight. The forgotten champion is about to defend his crown.

But ten years on from Annie Power’s remarkable fall at the same obstacle in the Mares’ Hurdle, we see a carbon copy.

State Man is in full flow, thundering for home. He launches himself at it, clips the top, and at that speed the undercarriage is never going to come down in time.

It’s a crunching fall and you’re watching on saying “get up, please get up”.

And he does. There’s relief as well as bewilderment. You need to refocus, get the eyes back on the principals. Golden Ace is giving Lorcan Williams a moment he’ll probably never eclipse in the saddle. It's a Champion Hurdle for a small team, the sort of feelgood story that the modern Cheltenham Festival isn't supposed to throw up.

And you think of Jeremy Scott and owner Ian Gosden rolling the big dice and going for the Champion rather than switching into the Mares’. And you’re pleased, a sense of irony not lost on you either.

Lorcan Williams aboard Golden Ace after landing the 2025 Champion Hurdle

But then you need to find those at the heart of the earlier drama.

Townend is returning to the sanctuary of the weighing room, walking purposefully and alone. Daryl Jacob offers him a consoling arm, no one else does. You don’t work at 30 Festivals without knowing when’s not a good time to try and get a quick line of reaction.

Behind you Constitution Hill is returning to a place he didn’t know even existed before this afternoon, the unsaddling area for the beaten horses.

Henderson and Michael Buckley are there to meet him. Michael O’Leary offers them a handshake of consolation. Even he is struggling to find the words.

Nicky will offer us some though, win, lose or draw.

“He seems fine, very bright and breezy. He hasn’t had a race obviously. I just don’t know, what do you say? There you go it happens, poor old State Man as well. They will do these silly things. It’s tough, but there you go. We know what we’re playing with, that’s the game. You have to take those difficulties on days like this," he says, sentences jumbled, thoughts clearly churning over in his mind.

“State Man at least had the race in the bag. I can’t say we’d have won, that would be stupid, but everything was going great...”

And he goes, to make sure De Boinville is OK. Behind me Racing TV ask Buckley how he feels?

“Like a crock of sh*te” he replies. “Sorry to sound a bit like Donald Trump but I can’t think of a better way to describe it."

I understand but there must be relief too.

Mullins, we need Mullins reaction. But he’s already saddling two up for the Fred Winter. The game goes on, no time for those at the heart of it to take a step back and think for a moment. Someone has a line though.

“He was just long at it and popped the top of it, but these things happen. We don’t need any chat with Paul to see what happened. I’m just delighted he is OK.”

Behind me the cheers and tears break out in the winners’ enclosure. Now the story belongs to Golden Ace and her team.

The cheers break out for Jeremy Scott

Scott is bewildered. You hear that word a lot today.

“I couldn’t even dream it - for God’s sake thump me, because I must be fast asleep at the moment!” he beams.

“It’s a real tragedy those two horses came down; it spoilt the race entirely, but we looked certainly booked for second or third before State Man came down, so it’s marred by that, really, but I’m just delighted that the gods have favoured us.

“My owner and I were not at loggerheads, because ultimately he pays the bills, but he was very keen to have a runner here today, we thought we could nick a little bit of prize-money, and we didn’t feel we could possibly beat Lossiemouth in the Mares’ Hurdle, so it’s extraordinary how things work out.”

Extraordinary is another good word for today. Relief too. There’s regret as well, regret that you’re not making the story all about the horse who has just won the Champion Hurdle for a team who are potentially enjoying a once-in-a-lifetime moment.

And you head home. Jonbon tomorrow. Another of the Festival bankers.

But if Tuesday taught us anything, anything at all, it’s that they simply don’t exist.

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