The Triumph Hurdle is the opening contest on the final day of the Cheltenham festival. Like all races on the final two days, the race is run on the new course at Prestbury Park.
The race is run over two miles with eight fences to jump in total.
The Triumph is open to juvenile novice hurdlers, meaning the race is only open to four-year olds. There is prize money of £70,000 on offer to the winner.
The race was first race in 1939 however wasn’t ran at Cheltenham and instead was run at Hurst Park in Surrey, with a domination of French bred horses winning the race.
After two years where the race wasn’t run, in 1965 the Triumph was moved to Cheltenham. When it initially was moved to Cheltenham however, it was not part of the festival and was instead run at the April meeting, under the sponsorship of newspaper, The Daily Express but was then added to the festival programme in 1968.
The race sponsorship changed hands in 1997, with The Elite Racing Club taking over before JCB, the current sponsors of the race, took the reigns in 2002.
The race is often seen is a stepping stone for the best young juvenile hurdlers around. Winners often go onto bigger things such as completing in Champion hurdles, with four horses winning the Champion hurdle as well as the Triumph.
Pentland Hills won the 2019 race on just his second start for Nicky Henderson in the hands of Nico de Boinville, giving Henderson a record seventh success in the race.
The race has somewhat become dominated by three figures within the national hunt scene, owner JP McManus, trainer Nicky Henderson and jockey Barry Geraghty.
Geraghty, who is McManus’ retained rider has won the race more than other jockey, successful five times, most recently in 2016. The five horses Geraghty has ridden to victory in the race are as followed:
Barry Geraghty:
Spectroscope (2003)
Zaynar (2009)
Soldatino (2010)
Peace And Co (2015)
Ivanovich Gorbatov (2016)
Three of Geraghty’s successes have come for Nicky Henderson, in the JP McManus colours however Henderson has had plenty more, with this first success coming in 1985 and then was quickly followed by victory in the 1987 race.
His seven victories mean he is the outright most successful trainer in the race and has achieved the success with the following horses:
Nicky Henderson:
First Bout (1985)
Alone Success (1987)
Katarino (1999)
Zaynar (2009)
Soldatino (2010)
Peace And Co (2015)
Pentland Hills (2019)
The Triumph can always spring a surprise because juvenile form is so hard to really predict. The 2020 race will be no different however it won’t be a surprise to see JP McManus owned horse towards the top of the betting and that should command respect, especially if it is trained by Nicky Henderson and ridden by Barry Gergahty. Even if not, Henderson alone should be noted if he chooses to run anything.
