Golden Ace wins most dramatic Champion Hurdle in living memory

Amid falling crowds, increasing numbers of odds-on shots and a relentless stream of winners from the Willie Mullins yard, it has been a popular theory in recent years that the Cheltenham festival was becoming a little too … predictable. But it was debunked in the space of four chaotic minutes of extraordinary drama on Tuesday, as Jeremy Scott’s mare Golden Ace, at 25-1, emerged as one of the most unexpected of all Champion Hurdle winners, at the end of a race in which both Constitution Hill and State Man, the champions in 2023 and 2024 respectively, were fallers.

A much-anticipated renewal of hurdling’s championship event, with Constitution Hill’s 10-race unbeaten record on the line as he attempted to seize back his crown, followed a predictable script to the fifth flight, with Constitution Hill, the odds-on favourite, settled in third behind his main market rival, Brighterdaysahead.

But his proud, perfect record was gone in an instant a few seconds later, as the favourite clipped the top of the hurdle and tipped over. His exit left Brighterdaysahead as the hot favourite in running, but she was already being ridden by Jack Kennedy as State Man, the defending champion, loomed up on her outside around the home turn.

State Man was clearly travelling much better than Brighterdaysahead and surged into an apparently decisive five-length lead on the run to the last, with Golden Ace moving into second. Just as it had for Constitution Hill, though, a clip of the hurdle was enough to send him crashing out, leaving Golden Ace – who was only running in the Champion at the insistence of her owner, Ian Gosden – to pick up the spoils.

Both Constitution Hill and State Man emerged from their falls unscathed, while Lorcan Williams, Golden Ace’s jockey, summed up the general mood as he waited to pick up his prize afterwards.

State Man falls at the final hurdle and hampers Brighterdaysahead as Golden Ace, second right, goes clear to win the Champion Hurdle. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

“I’m shell-shocked,” Williams said. “Literally, I cannot believe it. She wasn’t travelling as well as I wanted in the latter part of the race, all I was thinking was that we could do with a bit further. Then I thought, ‘we’re staying on well for second’, and things started to happen.”

Williams admitted that both he and Scott had been “pushing [to run Golden Ace in] the Mares’ Hurdle [earlier on the card] massively”, earlier on the card before being overruled by Gosden. “Massive call,” he said. “I’m just glad he did it.”

For Scott, a former dairy farmer and point-to-point trainer who sold off his herd to pursue a full-time career as a trainer, paid tribute to Camilla, his wife, and the rest of the team at his yard as he celebrated only the second festival success of his career, following Golden Ace’s defeat of Brighterdaysahead in the Mares’ Novice Hurdle last year.

“I couldn’t even dream it,” Scott said. “Thump me, because I must be fast asleep at the moment. I think my team at home will be as flabbergasted as I am. Camilla does a lot of the work at home and she has the patience of a saint. She’s the genius, rather than me.

“My owner and I were not at loggerheads, because ultimately, he pays the bills [and] 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.”

Nicky Henderson, Constitution Hill’s trainer, reported afterwards that his eight-year-old was “very bright and breezy” after his fall.

“He seems fine,” Henderson said. “He has been in terrific form [at home], but poor old State Man as well. You couldn’t believe those two silly old fools have gone and done what they have done today.

“When you are jumping as fast as they jump you have got to get it deadly accurate. It is tough, and we have to live with it, as we know what we are playing with. You have to live with these things, but it is cruel as we waited two years to get back here.”

All the focus was on four hot favourites for the Grade One races as the meeting opened here on Tuesday, and as it transpired, only two managed to justify their short odds. Kopek Des Bordes drew a blood-curdling roar from the crowd as he came up the hill to win the opening Supreme Novice Hurdle, while Lossiemouth – as Scott had anticipated – took the Mares’ Hurdle for the second year running.

Majborough, however, the 1-2 favourite, was only third in a thrilling four-way conclusion to the Arkle Trophy, as Henderson’s Jango Baie finished fast and late to grab the spoils from Only By Night, with L’Eau Du Sud, who had jumped the last in front, back in fourth.

“It was a brilliant ride [by Nico de Boinville] as he had to sit and suffer,” Henderson said. “We thought we were going to make the running but he had no chance because he couldn’t go fast enough, simple as that.

“Luckily he flew the last and landed full of running, and suddenly the gap was going down. I didn’t know he could go that fast, I must admit.”