Five great winners of the Coral Hurdle at Ascot

Faugheen, 2014

Faugheen made a winning seasonal reappearance in the 2014 running of the Coral Hurdle when making virtually all to win unextended by 3 3/4 lengths from Blue Fashion.

The Willie Mullins trained eight-year-old, who has been dubbed “Faugheen The Machine”, went on to land the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton and the 2015 renewal of the Champion Hurdle.

He was hot favourite to retain his Champion Hurdle crown after landing another Christmas Hurdle and the 2016 Irish Champion Hurdle, only to be ruled out of the race through injury. He has also tasted defeat in just one of his 12 starts over hurdles.

Hardy Eustace 2006/07

Trained in Ireland by the late Dessie Hughes, Hardy Eustace was one of the toughest and most popular hurdlers in training who landed back-to-back runnings of the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in 2004/05.

He strolled to a facile 15 length success in the 2006 running of the Coral Hurdle before following up 12 months later with a typically gutsy 1/2 length success over Afsoun.

Silviniaco Conti, 2010

Since registering an easy seven length success in the 2010 renewal of the Coral Hurdle, the Paul Nicholls trained Silviniaco Conti has developed into a top class steeplechaser.

The 10-year-old is a multiple Grade 1 winner over the larger obstacles, and they include back-to-back victories in the King George VI Chase at Kempton in 2013/14. Has failed in three attempts to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup but has won 11 of his 24 starts over fences and is a real credit to connections.

Related

For more horse racing content, check out our dedicated archive.