The talking heads on the Cheltenham Festival preview circuit have been pretty lukewarm about firm favourite Teahpuoo in the Stayers Hurdle of 2025 despite him winning the race comfortably 12 months ago.
Lightly campaigned and trained to peak in the spring by Gordon Elliott, what’s not to like? Not for him the winter slogs of the Long Walk at Ascot, Christmas Hurdle or Galmoy Hurdle in Ireland, and Cleeve Hurdle on Festival Trials Day.
Cullentra House has saddled the last two winners of the Stayers Hurdle. Aged eight, Teahupoo is by far the most likely, according to Cheltenham betting sites, to mount a successful defence of the three-mile crown.
It’s not as though multiple victories in modern renewals of the race since its revival in 1972 are uncommon either. Crimson Embers, Galmoy himself, Baracouda, Inglis Drever, Big Buck’s and Flooring Porter all triumphed at least twice.
So, why the cold feet about Teahupoo adding his name to those and landing the Stayers Hurdle in 2025 again? Quicker going apart, experts don’t really have a reason, they just have feelings he might get beat.
Horse racing is a game all about opinions and those on preview panels have every right to theirs. Yet nobody raised any concerns about Jonbon, chasing a first Festival victory aged nine in the Queen Mother Champion Chase after a busier campaign than Teahupoo.
Is it the drying ground? The going may be quicker than ideal for most National Hunt horse after a spell of warm weather. Watering that maintains good to soft conditions is fair for all.
What has Tehaupoo done wrong in trying to concede 7lb to Lossiemouth in the Hatton’s Grace over a trip short of his best? That may prove a perfectly good piece of form come the race.
Question Marks Over Most Stayers Hurdle 2025 Contenders
Can assessment of the opposition and Cheltenham horses taking Teahupoo on shed any light? Joseph O’Brien maverick Home By The Lee is second-favourite with the bookies. He’s a 10-year-old that has run in the race three times before and finished sixth, fifth and third.
Home By The Lee improves his finishing position with age, then. It’s also fair to say that there are easier rides for jockeys than him. Official assessment from the handicapper says he’s better than ever, though, on a career high mark of 159.
Recording back-to-back victories over Bob Olinger in the Lismullen Hurdle around Navan and then Leopardstown’s Christmas Hurdle show Home By The Lee in a good light. They also frank the form of last year’s race, however, and that shines Teahupoo laid out for a repeat bid.
The improver in the Stayers Hurdle of 2025 is Lucky Place. Unexposed over this distance, it must be taken on trust that Nicky Henderson has a horse that will stay this far. Looking back over last year’s Cheltenham results, Lucky Place could only manage fourth in the Coral Cup.
Consecutive Grade 2 wins in the Ascot Hurdle, then under a penalty in the Relkeel from subsequent Cleeve and Kingwell winners Gowel Road and Golden Ace read well. Lucky Place must prove his stamina to take the title from Teahupoo.
Elliott has more than one iron in this fire, though, with JP McManus purchase The Wallpark also running here. Connections decided against carrying topweight in the Pertemps Final, but he’s another progressive type and has Cheltenham experience from handicaps too.
Intriguing Blueblood Mystical Power Must Reinvent Himself
McManus is also one of a powerful conglomerate of owners behind the regally-bred Mystical Power. A son of late Flat staying sire supreme Galileo and National Hunt wonder-mare Annie Power, he epitomises the two codes of the sport coming together.
His parents are really something to live up to, though. Mystical Power did little wrong as a novice hurdler with spring Grade 1 successes at Aintree and Punchestown. In the Supreme, he simply found Slade Steel too good. To say the form of the first of the Cheltenham races during the Festival has taken a few knocks is an understatement.
Mystical Power hasn’t advertised it all, so connections step him markedly up in trip. Perhaps this thoroughbred is a pacemaker to ensure The Wallpark receives the strong gallop needed to win the Stayers Hurdle of 2025, but he hasn’t been ridden that way before.
His mother couldn’t quite win this when second to Cole Harden, so it gives Mystical Power an out. Upping to this longer distance is worth a go at any rate. Mystical Power needs a career revival and aged six may still not yet be in his prime.
There’s an old saying about if you’re good enough, then you’re old enough. A word of caution about young pretender Rocky’s Diamond, however. A horse aged five hasn’t won this in modern times. You must wind the clock right back to 1951 for the last one.
After just half-a-dozen career starts, Declan Queally’s horse could be anything. All three victories posted by Rocky’s Diamond so far came on clockwise tracks. Recent runs, a third to Home By Lee at Leopardstown, then Galmoy glory around Gowran Park took his form to a new level, though.
Langer Dan Forced Down This Route by Historic Feat
Anyone looking at the Cheltenham schedule for the Festival can be forgiven for scratching their heads at Langer Dan’s entry. A mercurial talent who only seems interested in racing when spring is in the air, the handicapper resented being made a fool of.
Until Langer Dan came along, no horse in the entire history of the Coral Cup had managed to win it twice. He broke that trend 12 months ago, and the assessor seems to have made a vow to prevent any hat-trick bid.
Dan Skelton has a horse only proven as a handicapper racing off career high marks since his exploits of last March and April. It has to be the Stayers Hurdle in 2025 for Langer Dan, because the alternative is the welter burden and conceding lumps of weight all-round.
Nemean Lion looks for a four-timer, meanwhile. Kerry Lee has campaigned her stable star very well first to pick out an easy race close to home at Hereford, then land a valuable conditions race around Windsor and the Grade 2 National Spirit on Fontwell Park’s figure of 8 track.
We haven’t seen Nemean Lion over this far yet, so he too has stamina to prove. If there isn’t any rain around, then he might not turn out at the Cheltenham Festival at all.
Long Walk Form Could Have Big Say in Stayers Hurdle of 2025
The winner and fourth from Ascot’s Christmastime feature could all take each other on again at the Festival. Based on the ante-post Cheltenham odds, The Wallpark has the best chance of those in the Long Walk frame. He didn’t get going until it was too late.
At the business end of that race, meanwhile, Crambo just lasted home from Hiddenvalley Lake, who hasn’t been declared. The former represents the local to Cheltenham yard of Fergal O’Brien. Crambo, who has won the Long Walk twice, didn’t replicate that form when a poor fifth in the Cleeve Hurdle here on Festival Trials Day.
There is a definite sense that, if The Wallpark has the race run to suit, it could pan out just right for him. A crawl and sprint won’t be what Elliott wants for a horse many have compared to the yard’s ill-fated but prolific Cheltenham stayer Sire Du Berlais.
Freshening both of Cullentra House’s hopes en route to the Stayers Hurdle of 2025 makes a lot of sense. Elliott wants both primed for a spring campaign that could also include either the Liverpool Hurdle at Aintree and/or Punchestown’s Champion Stayers.
While other horses engage in midwinter battles, Teahupoo stays wrapped up in his stable and kept fresh for these. The Wallpark too after a lot of racing through last summer and autumn returns from a break. Cullentra House may yet be vindicated in its less is more approach.
