The race is the last leg of the Triple Crown of Hurdling and is scheduled to take place each year on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival in March.
Its list of winners features many of the most highly acclaimed hurdlers in the sport's history, and several of these, such as National Spirit, Istabraq, Hatton's Grace, Persian War and Lanzarote, have had races named in their honour.
In its second year the event was won by Brown Jack, who subsequently became a prolific winner of long-distance flat races.
The Champion Hurdle was abandoned in 1931 due to persistent frost, and in 1932 it was contested by just three horses – the smallest field in its history.
The 1947 renewal paved the way for a golden era in the Champion Hurdle with just 3 winners until 1955 – National Spirit, Hatton's Grace and Sir Ken, all of them etched into the list of greatest ever hurdlers.
Even though it was postponed twice because of winter snows, taking place in mid-April, it proved most popular with a record attendance at that time of 30,000 racing fans.
The Racing Post declared the 1977 running to be the "strongest of fields ever assembled", with Night Nurse beating two other subsequent dual Champion Hurdle winners in Sea Pigeon and Monksfield.
After finishing third in the 2022 running ahead of Saint Roi, he was disqualified and placed last by a British Horseracing Authority tribunal in early 2023 after a banned substance was discovered in a sample taken on race day.