Who is the only trainer to have saddled the winner of the Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase and Cheltenham Gold Cup in the same season?

Along with the Stayers’ Hurdle, the Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase and Cheltenham Gold Cup comprise the four main ‘championship’ races staged annually at the Cheltenham Festival in March. The Cheltenham Gold Cup was first run, as a steeplechase, in 1924, the Champion Hurdle was first run in 1927 and the Queen Mother Champion Chase was first run, as the National Hunt Two-Mile Champion Chase, in 1959. However, in the six or so decades the races have co-existed, just one trainer has saddled the winner of all three in the same season.

The trainer in question is, of course, Henry de Bromhead, who is based in Knockeen, Co. Waterford and, in 2021, enjoyed an extraordinary four-week period in March and April. At the Cheltenham Festival, he saddled six winners, including not only an historic treble for Honeysuckle, Put The Kettle On and Minella Indo in the aforementioned championship races, but also Bob Olinger in the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle, Telmesomethinggirl in the Dawn Run Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle and Quilixios in the Triumph Hurdle. Three weeks later, de Bromhead saddled Minella Times and Balko Des Flos to finish first and second in the Grand National at Aintree.

Prior to 2021, the last trainer to win the Champion Hurdle and the Cheltenham Gold Cup in the same season was Kim Bailey, who did so with Alderbrook, ridden by Richard Dunwoody, and Master Oats, ridden by Norman Williamson, in 1995. Bailey did not have a runner in the Queen Mother Champion Chase that year although, just over three weeks after his Gold Cup victory, Master Oats was sent off 5/1 favourite to become the first horse since the legendary Golden Miller to complete the Cheltenham Gold Cup – Grand National double. He didn’t, of course, weakening on the flat to finish seventh of 35 finishers, 15¾ lengths behind the winner, Royal Athlete.

Did Tingle Creek ever win the Queen Mother Champion Chase?

To a younger audience, the name Tingle Creek is probably best known from the title of what is now a Grade 1 steeplechase, run annually over 1 mile, 7 furlongs and 119 yards at Sandown Park in early December. The eponymous Tingle Creek was, in fact, a flamboyant, front-running two-mile steeplechaser who won 23 of his 52 races in Britain during the seventies.

Trained by Harry Thomson ‘Tom’ Jones and ridden, at various stages of his career, by
David Mould, Ian Watkinson and Steve Smith-Eccles, Tingle Creek excelled on rattlingly fast ground and particularly so at Sandown Park, where he became a standing dish. He won the Benson and Hedges Gold Cup – which would later be renamed in his honour – under 12st 5lb in 1973 and the Sandown Handicap Pattern Chase three times, in 1973, 1977 and 1978. breaking the course record on each occasion. Smith-Eccles said of him, ‘ I never rode a more exciting jumper.’

Tingle Creek was retired from racing in November 1978 and was described by Timeform as ‘on occasions the best two-mile chaser around when conditions were in his favour’. For all his exploits elsewhere, though, the popular chestnut never won at Cheltenham. Four of his six attempts at Prestbury Park came in the National Hunt Two-Mile Champion Chase – which would not be renamed in honour of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother until 1980, after his retirement – and his best effort was in 1974, when second to Royal Relief.

That said, Tingle Creek regularly locked horns with the leading lights in the two-mile chasing division and often beat them on unfavourable terms. In the autumn of 1977, for example, he gave 4lb and a 20-length beating to Menehall, who subsequently finished second to Hilly Way in the 1978 Champion Chase, in a handicap at Fontwell Park.

Which horse won more races, Desert Orchid or Kauto Star?

Although by no means contemporaries, Desert Orchid and Kauto Star were both, of course, legendary steeplechasers of the modern era. In fact, it was not until 13 years, almost to the day, after

Desert Orchid suffered a disappointing end to his illustrious career, when falling in the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park on Boxing Day, 1991, that Kauto Star made a winning debut for Paul Nicholls in a novices’ chase at Newbury on December 29, 2004.

Thankfully, though, Timeform ratings – which were first published for National Hunt racing in the early sixties – are designed specifically to allow direct comparison between horses from different generations. According to Timeform, Kauto Star was rated 191 and Desert Orchid 187, making them the joint-fifth and sixth highest-rated steeplechasers of the Timeform era. In other words, Kauto Star was rated 4lb superior to his predecessor, which is the equivalent of approximately 4 lengths, based on the typical pounds-per-length scale used for Jumps handicapping over the range of distances at which they raced.

However, in terms of prolificacy, it was the flying grey who held sway. All told, Desert Orchid won 34, or 49%, of his 70 races over hurdles and fences and amassed £654,066. As testament to his versatility, his career highlights including victories in the Tingle Creek Chase, the King George VI Chase (four times), the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Irish Grand National over distances ranging from 2 miles to 3 miles and 5 furlongs.

By contrast, Kauto Star had a much shorter career, contesting just 41 races over hurdles and fences, but nonetheless won 23, or 56%, of them and amassed an eye-watering £3,775,883 in total prize money. Paul Nicholls’ charge was no less versatile than Desert Orchid, winning the Tingle Creek Chase (twice), the King George VI Chase (a record five times), the Betfair Chase (a record four times) and the Cheltenham Gold Cup (twice).

Annie Power

Annie Power, who was retired from racing following a very impressive 18-length victory in the Aintree Hurdle in April, 2016 – which earnt her her highest-ever Timeform rating of 170+ – was an extraordinary racemare who won fifteen of her seventeen starts. She is probably best remembered for being one of just four mares, and the first since Flakey Dove in 1994, to win the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. However, her 4½-length victory over My Tent Or Yours in the 2016 renewal of the two-mile hurdling championship – for which she had been supplemented, at a cost of £20,000 to connections – was her third consecutive appearance at the Cheltenham Festival.

Bred and originally owned by Eamon Cleary, Annie Power was bought by Rich and Susannah Ricci and transferred to Willie Mullins after winning two ‘bumpers’ for her original trainer, Jim Bolger, in August, 2012. She won her first seven starts over hurdles, including the Irish Stallions EBF Mares Novice Hurdle Championship at Fairyhouse, by a very easy 12 lengths, en route to her first appearance at the Cheltenham Festival. Despite racing over a distance beyond 2 miles 4½ furlongs for the first time in her career, she was sent off 11/8 favourite for the 2014 World Hurdle, but suffered what would be her only defeat in sixteen completed starts.

The following year, Annie Power returned to the Cheltenham Festival for the OLBG Mares’ Hurdle, in which she boasted far and away the best form and was consequently sent off 1/2 favourite. A flying leap at the second-last flight took her into the lead and she was in command, with the race at her mercy, approaching the final flight. However, Annie Power took off a full stride too soon, clipped the top bar and fell; in so doing, she saved the bookmaking industry an estimated £50 million after victories for Douvan, Un De Sceaux and Faugheen – all hot favourites and, like Annie Power, all trained by Willie Mullins and ridden by Ruby Walsh – in the first three races of the day.