As the same suggest, the Triple Crown of Hurdling consists of a trio of Grade 1 hurdle races, in which horses compete at level weights, but with allowances for age and gender, over the minimum distance of two miles, or thereabouts. In chronological order, as far as the British National Hunt calendar is concerned, the races in question are the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle, the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton Park and the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham.
The Champion Hurdle, run over an official distance of 2 miles and 87 yards on the Old Course at Prestbury Park in March, is far and away the oldest of the three, having been established, under the auspices of the ‘indefatigable’ Frederick Cathcart, in 1927. The Fighting Fifth Hurdle, which takes its name from the nickname of the former Royal Northumberland Fusiliers and is run over 2 miles and 46 yards in late November or early December, and the Christmas Hurdle, run over 2 miles on Boxing Day, are more recent additions to the programme, having both been inaugurated in 1969.
In the last four decades or so, a dozen horses, including the likes of Sea Pigeon, Dawn Run and, more recently, Faugheen, have won two of the three races. Perhaps the unluckiest loser of all, though, was Punjabi, trained by Nicky Henderson, who was a narrow winner of the Fighting Fifth Hurdle and the Champion Hurdle but, in between times, fell at the second-last flight, when nearly upsides, in the Christmas Hurdle; in so doing, he missed out on a £1,000,000 bonus, offered by the now-defunct World Bet Exchange (WBX), for winning all three races.
In fact, no horse ever won the bonus, which was only offered between 2006 and 2010 but, beforehand, Kribensis, trained by Sir Michael Stoute, won the Triple Crown of Hurdling in 1989/90 and, afterwards, Buveur D’Air and Constitution Hill, both trained by Nicky Henderson, did so again in 2017/18 and 2022/23. The hitherto unbeaten Constitution Hill is pencilled in for all three races, once again, in 2023/24, so may well repeat the feat for the second season running.