34 for the Champion SUPERB ENTRY OF 34 FOR SMURFIT KAPPA CHAMPION HURDLE STEWART AND NICHOLLS SET TO BE DOUBLE-HANDED IN CHELTENHAM FEATURE The previous four winners of the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle could all re-oppose at The Festival in March, with Hardy Eustace (2004 & 2005), Brave Inca (2006), Sublimity (2007) and last season's champion Katchit among the 34 entries for this year's race, the highlight of the first day of The Festival on Tuesday, March 10. The extended two-mile contest is one of the few races to elude Paul Nicholls and this year the champion trainer looks set to rely on Celestial Halo and Rippling Ring, who both run in the famous red, white and black silks of the Stewart Family. Celestial Halo's first season over hurdles culminated with victory in the JCB Triumph Hurdle at The Festival last year and the five-year-old started the current campaign with a fine second to last year's Supreme Novices' Hurdle runner-up and current ante-post Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle favourite Binocular in the Grade Two Boylesports.com International at Ascot last time out. Rippling Ring also enjoyed a good first campaign over hurdles last season and was fifth in the Supreme Novices' Hurdle at last year's Festival on only his second appearance over hurdles. Owner Andy Stewart revealed: "We have entered both Celestial Halo and Rippling Ring in the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle and the plan at the moment is for both of them to run. We thought that Celestial Halo had to do the donkey work in the Boylesports.com International and set the race up for Binocular so we hope that Rippling Ring can set a strong pace at The Festival. "Celestial Halo led from start to finish in the JCB Triumph Hurdle and he needs to go at a good gallop because he's probably a two and a half miler around Cheltenham and a three miler elsewhere. He won't run in the Irish Champion Hurdle, but he could make an appearance in the totepool Contenders Hurdle at Sandown on January 31. "I was very impressed with Binocular and you can see why he's a short-priced favourite for the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle, having beaten Celestial Halo by seven lengths at Aintree (in April) and then by four and a half lengths at Ascot in the Boylesports.com International. "Even though it was Celestial Halo's first run of the season, Binocular still looks the one to beat. It would be quite nice for (his owner) Mr McManus because when we beat Franchoek in the JCB Triumph Hurdle, he was the first person to congratulate me. "I thought that Rippling Ring was going to win at the top of the hill in the Supreme Novices' last season but he was tapped for toe in the closing stages. He has been entered to run at Ascot on Saturday, but he will only take his chance if the ground is very fast and he might go to Newbury for the totesport Trophy on February 7." Other notable entries for the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle include last year's second and third Osana and Punjabi, Snap Tie, who lowered the colours of Katchit on his seasonal reappearance at Kempton, as well as Crack Away Jack and Ashkazar, who finished first and second in last season's Fred Winter Juvenile Novices' Handicap Hurdle. A strong Irish challenge of 15 also includes Sizing Europe, successful in last season's Irish Champion Hurdle, Grade One winners Jered, Catch Me, Harchibald and Won In The Dark, and the classy novice Hurricane Fly. The French entry is the Francois Doumen-trained Onnix, who was sixth in last year's Pertemps Final at The Festival and is owned by Sir Michael Smurfit
