1994 Champion Hurdle


The 1994 Champion Hurdle was a horse race held at Cheltenham Racecourse on Tuesday 15 March 1994. It was the 65th running of the Champion Hurdle.
The winner was J. T. Price's Flakey Dove, an eight-year-old bay mare trained in Herefordshire by Richard Price and ridden by Mark Dwyer. Flakey Dove's victory was a first in the race for jockey, trainer and owner and the third in the race for a female racehorse after African Sister in 1939 and Dawn Run in 1984.
Flakey Dove was a non-Thoroughbred mare, who had made steady improvement since finishing seventh in the 1993 Champion Hurdle and emerged as a legitimate contender for the following year's renewal with wins in the Champion Hurdle Trial, Cleeve Hurdle, then a Grade 1 race run over 2 miles and 5 furlongs, and Berkshire Hurdle in early 1994. Starting at odds of 9/1 she won the Champion Hurdle by one and a half lengths from the favourite Oh So Risky with Large Action in third place. Two previous winners of the race took part: Granville Again finished seventh, whilst Morley Street was pulled up after four hurdles. Eleven of the fifteen runners completed the course.

Race details

  • Sponsor: Smurfit
  • Purse: £166,742; First prize: £99,933
  • Going: Good to Soft
  • Distance: 2 miles 110 yards
  • Number of runners: 15
  • Winner's time: 4m 02.30

    Full result


  • Abbreviations: nse = nose; nk = neck; hd = head; dist = distance; UR = unseated rider; PU = pulled up; LFT = left at start; SU = slipped up; BD = brought down

Winner's details

Further details of the winner, Flakey Dove
  • Sex: Mare
  • Foaled: 1986
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Sire: Oats; Dam: Shadey Dove
  • Owner: J. T. Price
  • Breeder: J. T. Price