The Stayers Hurdle, previously known as the World Hurdle, is a grade one race that has been run since 1912. At that time it was called the ‘Stayers Selling Hurdle’ and at the end of the first race the winning horse was sold for £50.

The Stayers Hurdle is open to horses that are four years of age or older and is the leading long-distance hurdle event over the National Hunt calendar.

The race is famous for having multiple race winners. Since it started, eight horses have gone on to win the race more than once, and five of those horses have defended their wins. It is run on the New Course, is 3 miles long and there are 12 hurdles for the horses to jump.

In 1993 it was moved to the Thursday of the festival and has stayed there since.

In 2005 Ladbrokes took sponsorship of the race and renamed it the World Hurdle. This new name only lasted until 2017 when Sun Bet sponsored it and reverted it back to the Stayers’ Hurdle although to many fans it is still known by its previous name.

As of 2020, Paddy Power have taken over sponsorship and it is now known as the Paddy Power Stayers Hurdle.

The first time the race was run in 1912 the winner of the race was Aftermath. The jockey was J. W. Pullen and the horse went off as the 11/10 favourite. £100 was awarded to them for winning. The runner up of the race received £10. The following year the winnings for the race was doubled to £200.

When the race’s most successful jockey Ruby Walsh won the race for the first time onboard Big Bucks in 2009, the prize money of the then Ladbrokes World Hurdle was £148,226.

Ten years later and in 2019 the prize money was starkly different. The overall purse for the race was £325,000 and the winner received £182,878! That went to Paisley Park who was ridden by Aidan Coleman. This was a first for all involved in the race. The trainer, owner, jockey and horse had never won this race before. The seven-year-old horse was the 11/8 favourite for the race.

2020 produced a real outsider win in the form of Lisnagar Oscar who went off at odds of 50/1. With no changes to the prize money, his connections including trainer Rebecca Curtis also took home close to £184K.

Due to circumstances in 2021, all prize money was reduced, including for this race. Trained by Gavin Cromwell, Flooring Porter was the winner with jockey Danny Mullisn on board. Connections earned £135,048 from the £240,000 on offer.

The race has produced some notable winners in its 107-year existence, the first of which was Silver Bay in 1913. It was the first horse to ever win the race multiple times and the first time a horse had retained their trophy. Silver Bay won the race by just 1.5 lengths in 1913 and 2 lengths in 1914.

Dorans Pride was another big winner in 1995. The 11/4 favourites went on to win the Power Gold Cup in 1997 which is now the Ryanair Gold Cup and takes place at Fairyhouse in Ireland each year on Easter Monday.

Big Bucks is probably the most famous horse in relation to the Stayers’ Hurdle. He won it first in 2009 and then went on to win it three more times. Unfortunately, in 2014 he came fifth in the World Hurdle and couldn’t match the record of Golden Miller, a five-time Gold Cup winner, with five consecutive wins in one Cheltenham race.

More recently the big winner has been Thistlecrack. He won the race in 2016 and later that year he went on to win the King George VI Chase, beating Cue Card by 3.25 lengths.

In the years since no horse has won the race twice.