Istrabraq, who won the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival three years running, in 1998, 1999 and 2000, is one of just a handful of horses – the others being Hatton’s Grace, Sir Ken, Persian War and See You Then – to have won the two-mile hurdling championship three times. Indeed, in 2001, he was odds-on ante post favourite to win the Champion Hurdle for an unprecedented fourth time when the Cheltenham Festival was cancelled, in its entirety, due to a local outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. He did return to Prestbury Park, as a ten-year-old, in 2002, but his bid to make history ended in disappointment. Sent off 2/1 favourite, he lost his action jumping the first flight of hurdles and was pulled up after jumping the second, having suffered a tendon injury.
Nevertheless, having previously won the Baring Bingham Novices’ Hurdle in 1997, he had already become the first horse since Persian War, in 1970, to win at four consecutive Cheltenham Festivals. He was awarded a Timeform Annual Rating of 180, making him the second-highest rated hurdler since the early Sixties, alongside Monksfield and behind only Night Nurse, who was rated 182.
Initially owned by Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum, Istabraq was acquired by leading National Hunt owner John Patrick ‘J.P.’ McManus, for 38,000 guineas, in 1996 and transferred to Aidan O’Brien at Ballydoyle, Co. Tipperary when his intended trainer, John Durkan, was diagnosed with leukemia. Istabraq was supposed to return to Durkan on his recovery but, tragically, his condition deteriorated and he died two years later. All told, between November, 1996 and March, 2002, Istabraq, who was ridden exclusively by Charlie Swan, made 29 starts over hurdles, winning 23 times and earning £1.04 million in total prize money.