The crowd at Cheltenham on day one of The Festival™ presented by Magners 2020 totalled 60664. This compares to 67934 people on day one in 2019, which was a record.
Ian Renton, Regional Director, Cheltenham & The South West, Jockey Club Racecourses, said: “We are very happy with the crowd of 60 664 considering the uncertainty of the last fortnight.”
Nicky Henderson extended his exceptional record in the Gr1 Unibet Champion Hurdle to eight when Epatante took the two-mile championship contest under Barry Geraghty, for whom it was a fourth, record-equalling, success in the race.
2/1 favourite Epatante, a six-year-old mare by No Risk At All, is the fifth of her sex to win the Champion Hurdle, and the first since Annie Power in 2016. She beat the Willie Mullins-trained Sharjah by three lengths.
Henderson said: “It’s a nice race, isn’t it? It goes back such a long time since the first one, which was I think was 1985 [See You Then], so it’s quite a long time.
“She was always travelling and you were always quite pleased with where she was. Barry gave her a beautiful ride. He always just had it covered and she has the gears.
“I was worried a bit after last year, when she didn’t run well in the mares’ novice hurdle, and she fell to pieces afterwards. She went home to [owner J P McManus’s stud] Martinstown – I sent her there looking awful and she came back looking fantastic, a million dollars
Epatante (nearside) jumps to the front
“We have been very lucky to have those sort of good horses. J P should have had last year’s winner in the race [Espoir D’Allen] and [2017 and 2018 winner] Buveur D’Air, who is back at Martinstown with a hole in his foot, so this would have been his third string.
“She’s as good as she looked the only two times she’s run this year. The big worry was when she came here last year and I thought she’d win, and she didn’t show up. Sophie Candy rides her every single day of the year, and she deserves great credit.”
It was a ninth success in the race for J P McManus, whose 69th birthday it is today.
Epatante’s win gave Henderson a 20/1 double so far today, following Shishkin’s victory in the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.
