Champion Hurdle

15:30 Cheltenham - Champion Hurdle

Honeysuckle quite rightly heads the market in her bid to follow up last year’s victory to make her a duel champion hurdle winner as well as remaining unbeaten in her 15 career starts.

I think it’s fair to say that her trainer Henry De Bromhead hasn’t had the best of seasons, however this mare has won twice this season and looked as good as ever.

The two mile hurdle division hasn’t had much strength in depth for a while, so is there anything in the way of opposition this year?

Appreciate It, last year’s impressive supreme winner, has had an unorthodox approach to this race in that his novice chase campaign was put on the back burner after a minor setback.

Connections have now targeted this race and although the horse has tons of ability it’s indicative of the strength of this race that he is currently second favourite.

Teahupoo was impressive last time and is improving all the time however it remains to be seen if the level of his form is worthy of a mark just three pounds behind Honeysuckle.

Epatante and Zanahiyr will run their races, but there’s no obvious reason why they should reverse previous form with Honeysuckle.

It may be worth trying to find some value each way so with that in mind Adagio rarely runs a bad race and a cracking effort under a big weight in the Greatwood would give him a squeak at a place.

Saint Roi was a strong fancy to be a potential champion a while ago. Things haven’t quite panned out for him though. It’s interesting that connections are persevering with him at this level and he could run a huge race at a massive price, with decent ground and a strongly run race he may go closer than many expect.

written by Matt Polley