Article #1423

• Outsider triumphs on day one of Cheltenham festival
• Constitution Hill and State Man both fall independently

Amid falling crowds, increasing numbers of odds-on shots and a relentless stream of winners from the Willie Mullins yard, it has been a popular theory in recent years that the Cheltenham festival was becoming a little too … predictable. But it was debunked in the space of four chaotic minutes of extraordinary drama on Tuesday.

Jeremy Scott’s mare Golden Ace, at 25-1, emerged as one of the most unexpected of all Champion Hurdle winners, at the end of a race in which both Constitution Hill and State Man – the champions in 2023 and 2024 respectively – were fallers.