The Long Walk Hurdle is a Grade 1 race run over 3 miles and 97 yards at Ascot in December. Open to horses aged four years and upwards, the race takes its name from ‘The Long Walk’, a chestnut tree-lined avenue in Windsor Great Park between Windsor Castle and the statue commonly known as the Copper Horse. The Long Walk Hurdle was inaugurated, as a handicap over 3 miles 2 furlongs, in 1965, but became a level-weights conditions race six years later.
Having achieved sufficient standing in the National Hunt calendar, the Long Walk Hurdle was promoted to Grade 1 status in 1990. The following year the distance was shortened to 3 miles, 1 furlong and 110 yards. During the redevelopment of Ascot between September, 2004 and June, 2006, the race was run at Windsor in 2004 and at Chepstow, over 2 miles, 7 furlongs and 131yards, in 2005. Back at Ascot, on the remodelled National Hunt course, in 2006, the distance was shortened again, to the current length.
The Long Walk Hurdle is highly significant, insofar as it is one of just three races of its kind – the others being the Stayers’ Hurdle at Cheltenham and the Liverpool Hurdle at Aintree – run during the National Hunt season. Big Buck’s, trained by Paul Nicholls, completed that notable treble three years running, in 2009, 2010 and 2011. However, the most successful horse in the history of the Long Walk Hurdle was Baracouda, trained by François Doumen, who won the race four times, in 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2004, having been set too much to do when second, at long odds-on, in 2002. Doumen, who retired in 2017, remains the leading trainer.
The staying hurdle division may be more competitive than it was in the first decade or so of the twenty-first century but, even so, the 2022 renewal of the Long Walk Hurdle – scheduled for Saturday, December 17 – seems likely to attract some familiar names. Ante-post prices are not yet available, but look out for horses that feature prominently in the betting for the Stayers’ Hurdle.