Cheltenham Festival 2025 – Bookies spared bumper payout after opening day carnage

Horse Racing
Espoir D'Allen lands Champion Hurdle

Bookmakers were spared an estimated £50 million payout after a series of shock results on the opening day of the 2025 Cheltenham Festival.

Punters had the upper hand after the first race as Kopek Des Bordes justified favouritism to claim an impressive victory in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.

The Willie Mullins-trained five-year-old even had betting sites in Australia running for cover after extending his unbeaten record to four wins.

Mullins has garnered plenty of attention in Aussie racing circles in recent years after making several unsuccessful attempts to win the Melbourne Cup.

However, while ‘the race that stops the nation’ has proved to be elusive to Mullins, he has repeatedly been a thorn in the side of bookmakers during the Cheltenham Festival.

He subsequently completed a double on the card as Lossiemouth hacked up in the Mares’ Hurdle, but his opening day also featured some major disappointments.

His Majborough put a smile back on the bookies’ faces after jumping poorly in the Arkle Novices’ Chase but worse was to come later in the day.

Mullins’ State Man was on course to win the two-mile Champion Hurdle for the second successive year, but suffered a crashing fall when five lengths clear at the final flight.

Jockey Paul Townend was handed a golden opportunity to win the race when odds-on favourite Constitution Hill suffered a heavy fall at the fifth flight.

Townend sent State Man into what looked to be an unassailable lead around the home turn, but the horse failed to clear the final obstacle.

Mullins said: “He’s a little bit sore and got a bang on the head I think when he was getting up, but he cantered away and trotted up sound, so we’re happy enough with him.

“The vets have examined him and they’ve said he’s fine to travel home this evening – that’s good news. It’s unfortunate, but it’s racing and that’s what makes winning over here so hard, you never know when something like that is going to happen.

“You’ve really got to choose the right horse for any race here and you make plenty of plans, but you couldn’t have imagined that – two Champion Hurdle winners falling.

“The only thing stranger would have been if Lossiemouth was in there – she would probably have been brought down! You never know what’s going to happen and that’s why bookmakers drive bigger cars than us.”

Constitution Hill’s exit from the race was undoubtedly the biggest relief for the bookies given that he had been sent off as the 1.50 favourite at post-time.

Trainer Nicky Henderson had brought the 2023 champion back to full fitness after almost a year on the sidelines and he was well backed to regain his crown.

The eight-year-old raced with verve on the heels of the leaders, producing some extravagant jumps during the early part of the race.

However, he took off slightly too early at the fifth obstacle and broke the hearts of millions of punters as he crashed to the ground with jockey Nico de Boinville.

Constitution Hill was soon back on his feet and appeared to be unscathed, leaving Henderson pondering what might have been had he remained upright.

“You think of the first word that comes into your head and it would probably be the same as mine,” Henderson said. “I don’t know, what can you say? He seems fine, he’s very bright and breezy. He hasn’t had a race, obviously, and we’ll just have to think of a plan.

“We thought we had him right, he’s been in terrific form, but there you go – it happens. Poor old State Man as well – you couldn’t believe those two silly old fools have gone and done what they’ve done today.”

“When you’re jumping as fast as they jump, you’ve got to get it deadly accurate. You’d like to see the replay of it, but it doesn’t really matter what he did.

“It’s tough, but we have to live with it. We know what we’re playing with and that’s the game – you have to take these things. It’s just typical it’s on a day like this. So now what do we do? I know what we’ll do – surely there’ll be a rather fun day in Punchestown now?”

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