2025 Stayers' Hurdle Trends

The trends of a race can be really useful to follow when looking for winners to back at Cheltenham Festival betting sites so we've taken a look at the most important Stayers' Hurdle trends from the last 10 years for you. We've used them to find you the best horses to follow right now in the 2025 Stayers' Hurdle when placing wagers with the best horse racing betting sites.

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The last 10 winners:

• Last ran in a Graded hurdle and not a in handicap.
• Had run at least twice in the last 12 months.
• Had run in at least four hurdle races and won at least two.
• Last ran at Cheltenham or in Ireland.
• Had eight or more runs over hurdles and at least three wins.

Nine of the last 10 winners:

• Had run at Cheltenham before, seven at the Festival (Flooring Porter).
• Last ran in a race more than 32 days ago (Sire Du Berlais).
• Were aged between six and nine (Sire Du Berlais).
• Had placed over hurdles over a distance of at least 3m (Nichols Canyon).
• Finished in the first four last time out, four winning and two finishing second (Nichols Canyon).
• Had won at least one Grade 1 or Grade 2 hurdle over 3m (Nichols Canyon).

Eight of the last 10 winners:

• Had run at least twice that season (Penhill, Teahupoo).
• Last ran no more than 80 days ago (Penhill, Teahupoo).
• Had three or more wins on a left-handed track (Lisnagar Oscar, Teahupoo).

Key Trials from the last 10 years

Four of the last 10 winners last ran in the Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham (Cole Harden, Thistlecrack, Paisley Park and Lisnagar Oscar). No trial has a better record in producing the winner of the Stayers' Hurdle, and in 2025 the race was won by Gowel Road. The Relkeel Hurdle at Cheltenham has also proved a useful trial, with one winner and several placed finishers in the past 10 years. Lucky Place won this season's renewal for Nicky Henderson.

Only one winner in the last 10 years had never run at Cheltenham before - Flooring Porter in 2021. The others had all run at least once at the course, so it pays to look at all relevant Cheltenham hurdle races. Flooring Porter, winner of the 2021 and 2022 renewals, had last run in the Christmas Hurdle at Leopardstown in December before both wins.

Trainer Trends

• Paul Nicholls has won the race four times overall, more than any other trainer, but all wins were by his star staying hurdler Big Buck’s. The last of those victories came in 2012. Nicholls has had three placed horses since.
• Willie Mullins has won two of the last eight Stayers' Hurdles, both winners being aged seven and bred in Britain. He's also had just four placed horses in the past 13 years from 25 runners.
• The last four winners were trained in Ireland with two wins a piece from Gordon Elliott and Gavin Cromwell.

Jockey Trends

There are no notable jockey trends in the Stayers' Hurdle, though Danny Mullins has won twice on Flooring Porter.

How Did the Trends do Last Year?

The big snag for Teahupoo on trends in 2024 was his lack of appearances. He only had one run to his name that season, which came at Fairyhouse at the beginning of December. This meant he didn't tick the two runs in a season box, nor had he run in the last 80 days. This is one example where the trends can only do so much of the work for you, his lack of runs in the season was a deliberate campaign tactic and not because of setbacks, which is usually the case. He hadn't, however, had the required number of wins at left handed tracks to fit the trends either, so could have been ruled on that basis as well.

This continues the pattern we have seen that when horses break trends, they break a number. Penhill, Nichols Canyon, Sire Du Berlais and Teahupoo all smashed a number of trends when winning.

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Who Fits The Trends Best In 2025?

The 2024 Stayers winner Teahupoo tops the trends picks after plotting his own route to the Festival. As was the case last year, he has been campaigned lightly in the buildup to the race, again taking in the same meeting at Fairyhouse. Although this season he was beaten by in the race trying to give weight to Lossiemouth rather than picking up the win.

After his Stayers' Hurdle win at the Cheltenham Festival last season he does now collect his three wins going left handed badge, so his bespoke campaigning is the only reason he wouldn't be a trends pick. As mentioned previously, we know this is deliberate and more importantly we know it works, so overall he does fit the trends best and would be the pick.

2024 Stayers' Hurdle Result