Teahupoo justified favouritism in the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle at Cheltenham Festival this afternoon (14 March), when winning the Grade One race by three and three quarter lengths. The seven-year-old, ridden by Jack Kennedy and owned by Robcur, gave trainer Gordon Elliott his first winner of the 2024 Festival.
“He’s an amazing horse,” said Jack. “He makes my job very easy. You can put him wherever you want in a race and he jumps great so he’s a pleasure to ride.
“I wasn’t too frustrated [by not having a winner] because the horses have been running well, but I started getting a little bit annoying yesterday evening. It’s brilliant to get off the mark now.”
It was a first run since early December for Teahupoo and this marked his third Grade One victory on just his 15th start.
“It’s just great to get a winner – we’ve hit the crossbar all week,” said Mr Elliott. “To win the Stayers’ Hurdle is just unbelievable – for the whole team and for Jack and for Robcour. We’ve one on the board now, so we are happy.
“This was always the plan with Teahupoo. He runs well fresh and so we came straight here.”
Flooring Porter, ridden by Keith Donoghue and trained by Gavin Cromwell, was second, while the Joseph O’Brien-trained Home By The Lee, who was ridden by JJ Slevin, finished third.
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Mr Cromwell, who won this race with Flooring Porter in 2021 and 2022, said: “I’m delighted with the run. You hate standing in second place, but that is just the nature of the beast. I don’t think we could have done anything different or have ridden him any differently. It was a very game performance.”
Teahupoo’s victory marked the first Irish winner on day three of the Festival after wins for Dan Skelton and Paul Nicholls in the initial three races.
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Former web features editor, point-to-point editor and digital racing editor
Gemma is an experienced journalist, who was a member of H&H staff from 2014 to September 2025. She is passionate about all equestrian sports, including racing and point-to-pointing. She has enjoyed riding out for top trainers Nicky Henderson and Charlie Appleby and took part in a charity Flat race at Epsom in August 2018. Gemma’s has reported from numerous five-star events around Britain and Europe, as well as European championships.
