Ben Linfoot kicks off our Cheltenham Festival GOAT series with the case for the hugely popular, three-time Champion Hurdle hero Istabraq.
Why is Istabraq the greatest Cheltenham horse of all time?
Well, to put him right in the conversation he is arguably the greatest Champion Hurdle winner of all time. He won three in a row at odds of 3/1, 4/9 and 8/15 at the turn of the century, becoming very much a legend for punters, and he won four Festival races in a row having started with a win at 6/5 in the Royal SunAlliance Novices’ Hurdle (now Turners). It could’ve been five in a row, too, as he was odds-on favourite for a fourth Champion Hurdle in 2001 before foot-and-mouth saw the Festival abandoned. But four great wins. And he did it in such tremendous style. Rapid hurdling and a swift turn of foot, befitting of his Shadwell pedigree, were his trademarks and they were always on show at the Festival, where he was so dominant, just like he was everywhere else; at Leopardstown, where he won 10 times, including four Irish Champion Hurdles, he is immortalised in bronze leaping a hurdle with his customary athleticism. A twist of fate saw him trained by Aidan O’Brien, while for every brilliant JP McManus-owned horse before or since, and there have been plenty of them, he’ll never have one as famous and as popular as the mighty Istabraq. And he's got a bar at Cheltenham named after him - he’d probably have a statue there too were it not for foot and mouth.
