Home By The Lee was a surprise 33/1 winner of the Grade 1 Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle at Cheltenham on Thursday.
Running at the Festival for the fifth time, the 11-year-old led home an Irish-trained trifecta with Ballyburn (11/2) and last year’s winner, Bob Olinger (13/2) taking second and third places.
Home By The Lee, trained by Joseph O’Brien for Cork owner Seán O’Driscoll, had finished best-placed third in the 2024 renewal of the stayers’ championship.
With the eventual fourth-placed finished, the Dan Skelton-handled Kabral Du Mathan (4/1/) cruising in behind the eventual winner coming to the last, the latter found absolutely nothing in the closing stages and faded to finish fourth.
Ballyburn, who had raced with a very low head carriage in last place for most of the race, tried to come up the stands’ side rail but didn’t find any room. His rider, Paul Townend, then had to manoeuvre out and possibly lost some momentum in the process.
The Ronny Bartlett-owned Beeches Stud-bred son of Flemensfirth took the runner-up position one-and-a-quarter lengths behind the winner.
“He was a summer bumper horse originally so he bounced off it today.” JJ Slevin on 11-Y-O Home By The Lee’s remarkable @paddypower Stayers’ Hurdle triumph
pic.twitter.com/utCG85bXrR — Racing TV (@RacingTV) March 12, 2026
The 2025 winner, the Henry de Bromhead-trained Bob Olinger, now an 11-year-old like the winner, Home By The Lee, was third in the hands of Darragh O’Keeffe, a further length-and-a-half in arrears of Ballyburn.
Seán O’Driscoll, the owner-breeder of Home By The Lee, said:
“We came here with confidence, but the odds were stacked against us in that he’s 11 years of age, it was his fifth attempt at the race, I don’t think any horse has won it after running in it five times – the moral of the story is that there’s always a first time!”
The post Home By The Lee wins Stayers’ Hurdle on fifth Festival visit appeared first on SportsNewsIreland.