Crazy Champion Hurdle is even more baffling in light of how few fallers we saw over hurdles at Cheltenham

What a crazy Champion Hurdle we had to start this Cheltenham Festival, setting the tone for much of what followed. To underline the point, consider how unlikely it was that the two previous champions would both fall.

A total of 224 horses ran over hurdles at Cheltenham last week, of which only four fell: Constitution Hill and State Man in the Champion, Gala Marceau in the Mares' Hurdle and Crambo in the Stayers'. There were also a couple of unseated riders, one of them caused by Crambo's fall and the other a simple case of a 7lb claiming amateur falling off.

In the wake of that blood-and-thunder Champion Hurdle, a reader's letter asked whether there might be an issue with the new hurdle design. But the faller rate across the whole festival was 1.8 per cent of runners; there's nothing much wrong with these obstacles.