Triple Crown of Hurdling

The Triple Crown of Hurdling is awarded to any horse that wins all three of the open, two-mile Grade 1 Hurdling races in any given English National Hunt season. The three races making up the Triple Crown are:

  1. The Fighting Fifth Hurdle, held at the Newcastle Racecourse
  2. The Christmas Hurdle, held at Kempton Park Racecourse
  3. The Champion Hurdle, held at Cheltenham Racecourse

During 2006-2010,[1] the World Bet Exchange (WBX) put up a £1,000,000 bonus[2][3] to any horse that wins the Triple Crown. WBX offered the £1,000,000 prize, the richest in hurdling history,[4] as a way to boost the profile of the betting exchange prior to its launch.[5] The bonus is split among the winning horse's connections as follows:[6]

The only horse to have ever won all three of Triple Crown races in a season was the Sir Michael Stoute trained grey Henbit gelding Kribensis in 1989-90.[7] Since the WBX bonus was introduced, only Punjabi and Go Native have come close to claiming the £1,000,000 prize, winning the two out of the three races. After the bonus was withdrawn, their achievements have been matched by My Tent Or Yours and Faugheen.

Punjabi (2008/09)

Punjabi was the first horse who came closest of winning the WBX bonus. After narrowly beating the former champion hurdler Sublimity by a head in the 2008 Fighting Fifth Hurdle, Punjabi fell heavily in the 2008 Christmas Hurdle at the second-last flight while vying for the lead. Three months later, Punjabi held off the late rally of Celestial Halo to win the 2009 Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle as a 22/1 outsider.

His trainer, Nicky Henderson, was left to regret what might have been: "He was the forgotten horse. We'd have won a £1 million bonus if he hadn't fallen in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton. He would have won I think. He was cantering. Anyway this makes up for it."[8] Punjabi's owner, Raymond Tooth, later described Punjabi's fall at Kempton as, "...probably the most expensive fall in the history of racing."[9]

Go Native (2009/10)

Without his normal jockey Paul Carberry,[10] Go Native entered the 2009 Fighting Fifth Hurdle as a 25-1 long-shot. Go Native and jockey Davy Condon went on to win the race by 2.5 lengths over Sublimity.[11] Paul Carberry was quoted as saying: It wasn't a surprise to me. It looked tough on paper, but we know how good he is.[10]

Go Native, owned by the Docado Syndicate, entered the Christmas Hurdle as the 5-2 second favourite (behind Binocular),[12] and went on to secure a narrow victory over Starluck.[13]

A win in the 2010 Cheltenham Festival for Go Native would have made him the first horse to win the WBX bonus. Over £205,000 was wagered on WBX for the 2009-10 Triple Crown to be won, the market was backed in from a high of 49/1 before the first leg to a low of 3.8/1 prior to the Champion Hurdle.[14] With jockey Paul Carberry set to ride Go Native, Meade said of his horse: He's in great order and I couldn't be happier with him. It's all systems go. He looks great, he had a little breeze out on the track and he was nice and fresh. His last piece of work was pretty good all right, we were very happy with it.[15] Unfortunately, Go Native was unable to clear the second hurdle cleanly and could not recover, finishing the race in 10th place.[16][17]

Triple Crown leg winners since the 1979/80 season

Winner Groups
Winners of the Triple Crown
Winners of 2 out of the 3 Triple Crown races that includes the Champion Hurdle
Winners of the Fighting Fifth and Christmas Hurdle
Race Season
 Fighting Fifth Hurdle
 Christmas Hurdle
 Champion Hurdle
1979/80 Birds Nest Birds Nest Sea Pigeon
1980/81 Sea Pigeon Celtic Ryde Sea Pigeon
1981/82 Ekbalco RNR For Auction
1982/83 Donegal Prince Ekbalco Gaye Brief
1983/84 Gaye Brief Dawn Run Dawn Run
1984/85 Browne's Gazette Browne's Gazette See You Then
1985/86 Out of the Gloom Aonoch See You Then
1986/87 Tom Sharp Nohalmdun See You Then
1987/88 Floyd Osric Celtic Shot
1988/89 Floyd Kribensis Beech Road
1989/90 Kribensis Kribensis Kribensis
1990/91 Beech Road Fidway Morley Street
1991/92 Royal Derbi Gran Alba Royal Gait
1992/93 Halkopous Mighty Mogul Granville Again
1993/94 RNR Muse Flakey Dove
1994/95 Batabanoo Absalom's Lady Alderbrook
1995/96 Padre Mio RNR Collier Bay
1996/97 Space Trucker RNR Make A Stand
1997/98 Star Rage Kerawi Istabraq
1998/99 Dato Star French Holly Istabraq
1999/00 Dato Star Dato Star Istabraq
2000/01 Barton Geos RNR
2001/02 Landing Light Landing Light Hors La Loi III
2002/03 Intersky Falcon Intersky Falcon Rooster Booster
2003/04 The French Furze Intersky Falcon Hardy Eustace
2004/05 Harchibald Harchibald Hardy Eustace
2005/06 Arcalis Feathard Lady Brave Inca
2006/07 Straw Bear Jazz Messenger Sublimity
2007/08 Harchibald Straw Bear Katchit
2008/09 Punjabi Harchibald Punjabi
2009/10 Go Native Go Native Binocular
2010/11 Peddlers Cross Binocular Hurricane Fly
2011/12 Overturn Binocular Rock On Ruby
2012/13 Countrywide Flame Darlan Hurricane Fly
2013/14 My Tent Or Yours My Tent Or Yours Jezki
2014/15 Irving Faugheen Faugheen
2015/16 Identity Thief Faugheen —

Notes

  1. ↑ Montgomery, Sue (23 November 2006). "Racing: Bear stakes claim with Fighting chance". London: The Independent. Retrieved 2009-03-12.
  2. ↑ "Hurdling aces can secure €1.49m bonus". breakingnews.ie. Retrieved 2009-03-12.
  3. ↑ "What is the Triple Crown?". wbxtriplecrown.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-03-11.
  4. ↑ Go Native closes in on £1m payout, mirror.co.uk, 16 February 2010, accessed 28 February 2010.
  5. ↑ WBX come out fighting in battle of the exchanges, dailymail.co.uk, 22 November 2006, accessed 28 February 2010.
  6. ↑ "WBX To Put Up £1m Hurdling Bonus Again". racingpost.com. Retrieved 2009-09-20.
  7. ↑ "Kribensis passes away at 23". rte.ie. Retrieved 2009-03-11.
  8. ↑ "Outsider Punjabi wins by a neck at Cheltenham". Scotsman.com. Retrieved 2009-03-11.
  9. ↑ "Barry Geraghty rides 22-1 Punjabi to Champion Hurdle triumph". London: telegraph.co.uk. 10 March 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-11.
  10. 1 2 Native scores surprising Fighting Fifth win, rte.ie, 28 November 2009, accessed 28 February 2010.
  11. ↑ Go Native Rocks Binocular and Solwhit in Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle, dailymail.co.uk, 28 November 2009, accessed 28 February 2010.
  12. ↑ Native prevails in Christmas cracker, belfasttelegraph.co.uk, 26 December 2009, accessed 28 February 2010.
  13. ↑ Christmas Hurdle Goes Native, skysports.com 26 December 2009, accessed 28 February 2010
  14. ↑ All systems go for bonus hunting Go Native, puntinplay.com, 15 March 2010, accessed 21 March 2010.
  15. ↑ Native one in a million, google.com, 18 March 2010, accessed 21 March 2010.
  16. ↑ Disappointment for local runners at Cheltenham, meathchronical.ie, 16 March 2010, accessed 21 March 2010.
  17. ↑ Bone scans and back specialists turn 999-1 Binocular into a champion, guardian.co.uk, 16 March 2010, accessed 17 March 2010.

See also

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