Timeform's 2021/22 jumps season recap | The Hurdlers

Staying hurdlers

Flooring Porter (Timeform rating h162) joined some illustrious names to have won the Stayers’ Hurdle at Cheltenham more than once and, while he’s no Big Buck’s, Flooring Porter impressed with some slick jumping in front as he was able to secure even more of an uncontested lead than he had when successful the year before. However, a bunched finish with some outsiders finishing close up prompts a cautious view of the form.

Klassical Dream (h161) was only fifth in the Stayers’ Hurdle but can be regarded as Flooring Porter’s chief rival in the staying division and was sent off favourite at Cheltenham having beaten him for a second time in the Christmas Hurdle at Leopardstown. Unlike in their first meeting at the 2021 Punchestown Festival, Flooring Porter was on-song this time but Klassical Dream, who pinched a good lead early on, kept up a strong gallop to beat him by two lengths with the pair pulling a long way clear. Klassical Dream met with a surprise defeat in the Galmoy Hurdle at Gowran before Cheltenham where it was his turn to miss the break, but he went on to win a second Champion Stayers Hurdle at Punchestown (Flooring Porter absent) and then finish a good second in the Grande Course de Haies d’Auteuil.

Old rivals Thyme Hill (h158) and Paisley Park (h158) were involved in a tight finish for the places in the Stayers’ Hurdle, neither having been that well placed, and had earlier filled the same places behind Champ (h157) in the Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot.

Returning from fences, Champ looked like becoming the new top staying hurdler at Ascot but met with an odds-on defeat to Paisley Park in the Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham next time (Paisley Park’s third win in that contest) and then raced too freely when fourth in the Stayers’ Hurdle and took only a remote third in the Liverpool Hurdle at Aintree in which Sire du Berlais (h159) inflicted a surprise defeat on Flooring Porter.

Sire du Berlais had been badly hampered at Cheltenham when bidding for a third win in the Pertemps Final, but his Gordon Elliott stablemate Commander of Fleet (h158$) had better luck in the Coral Cup, pulling off a 50/1 shock in deteriorating conditions. The unreliable Commander of Fleet was better than ever at Cheltenham and that was his second long-priced win of the season in a valuable handicap after an earlier success at Navan.

Thomas Darby (h152$) isn’t one to trust either, but he came good in the Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury which was run to suit him and he showed similar form, despite finishing with less conviction, when fourth in the Long Walk.

Two-mile hurdlers

It might prove a different story in the coming months (see the novice hurdlers below), but the unbeaten reign of Honeysuckle (h165) as the dominant two-mile hurdler lasted for another season and never looked under much threat.

In a carbon copy of her previous campaign, she again won the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle at Fairyhouse and Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown, both for a third time, before retaining her Champion Hurdle title at Cheltenham and then recording another straightforward success in the Punchestown Champion Hurdle which took her unbeaten record to 16 races.

The only horse seriously backed against Honeysuckle all season in what remained a weak division was the previous year’s runaway Supreme Novices’ Hurdle winner Appreciate It (h160). A setback put his switch to fences on hold and he could finish only seventh in the Champion Hurdle after a whole year’s absence.

Instead, it was the 2020 winner Epatante (h156), third the year before, who followed Honeysuckle home in the Champion Hurdle. Epatante enjoyed a more rewarding campaign than the previous one, dead-heating with Not So Sleepy (h155) to win the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle again, going one better than the year before when beating subsequent Betfair Hurdle winner/Champion Hurdle fifth Glory And Fortune (h153) in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton and then stepping up in trip after the Champion Hurdle to win the Aintree Hurdle in clear-cut fashion. After some hard races, Epatante could be forgiven an odds-on defeat at Punchestown where she finished third behind stablemate Marie’s Rock (h147) in the Mares Champion Hurdle.

Runner-up in the two previous Champion Hurdles, Sharjah (h164) wasn’t seen out after the turn of the year but added two more Grade 1 wins to his record before then, winning a second Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown and a fourth successive Matheson Hurdle at Leopardstown.

Runner-up in both those races was Zanahiyr (h160) whose only win came in the Grade 2 WKD Hurdle at Down Royal but who picked up more place money behind Honeysuckle at Leopardstown and Cheltenham and would have been second to Epatante at Aintree but for falling heavily at the last.

Former County Hurdle winner Saint Roi (h155) ran up to his best when a never-dangerous fourth in the Champion Hurdle having previously finished third in the Matheson and fourth in the Irish Champion Hurdle.

Goshen (h157) looked as good as ever when winning the Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton for the second year running, following up a win in the Contenders Hurdle at Sandown, but he wasn’t entered for the Champion Hurdle after hanging badly in the race the year before.

Tommy’s Oscar (h153) was one of the stories of the season, running up a four-timer in the North for Ann Hamilton’s small yard and graduating from handicaps to win the Champion Hurdle Trial at Haydock, but he finished well held in the Champion Hurdle itself.

Sceau Royal (h155) had his attentions switched back to fences later in the season but had earlier won the Elite Hurdle at Wincanton for a third time before finishing third in the Fighting Fifth.

Novice hurdlers

Not only was Constitution Hill (h177p) the standout novice over hurdles, but his rating made him much the best hurdler of the season full stop and as good as any novice hurdler in Timeform’s experience in fact.

He looked a novice of rare promise in making light of testing conditions in his first two starts at Sandown, including the Tolworth Novices’ Hurdle, but a strongly-run race on better ground at Cheltenham allowed him to produce a breathtaking performance in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle in which he showed a fine turn of foot to pull 22 lengths clear of stable companion Jonbon (h153p).

Jonbon began the season with a big reputation himself for Nicky Henderson and won all four of his other starts, notably when battling to a neck success after Cheltenham in the Top Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree from one of Willie Mullins’ best novices El Fabiolo (h152), who went on to win at Punchestown.

Both of those are exciting novice chase prospects as is Mullins’ Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle winner Sir Gerhard (h152), a Grade 1 winner at the Dublin Racing Festival beforehand whose subsequent defeat in the two-mile Champion Novice Hurdle at Punchestown won by Mighty Potter (h148) shouldn’t be held against him.

Mighty Potter was pulled up in the Supreme but took his second Grade 1 of the season at Punchestown after beating Three Stripe Life (h147) for a Gordon Elliott one-two in the Future Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown in December.

Three Stripe Life was runner-up to Sir Gerhard on his next two starts before going one better in the Mersey Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree, but he then came up short behind State Man (h155p) and dual Grade 2 winner Flame Bearer (h148) in the two-and-a-half-mile Champion Novice Hurdle at Punchestown.

State Man stepped up in trip after winning the County Hurdle at Cheltenham from fellow novice First Street (h145) but could be targeted by Mullins at the Champion Hurdle and looks the best prospect among the novices bar Constitution Hill.

Dysart Dynamo (h147) looked very promising, so much so he started joint-favourite for the Supreme when still unbeaten, but fell there and then ran poorly at Punchestown.

Mullins also had the leading staying novice The Nice Guy (h150p) whose unbeaten record included the double of the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham and the Irish Mirror Novice Hurdle at Punchestown, with stablemate Minella Cocooner (h149), who’d been a Grade 1 winner himself at the Dublin Racing Festival, runner-up both times.

Meanwhile, Vauban (h150P) looked a very exciting juvenile hurdler for Mullins in completing a Grade 1 hat-trick in the Spring Juvenile Hurdle at Leopardstown, the Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham and the Champion Four Year Old Hurdle at Punchestown, with Fil Dor (h144) chasing him home each time.

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