Champion Hurdle is a tricky puzzle to solve

The Champion Hurdle is the opening day highlight of the Cheltenham Festival in March when the best two mile hurdlers on these islands do battle to lift the coveted crown.

A Champion Hurdle victory propels a horse to almost mythical status with names like Persian War, Night Nurse, Monksfield, Sea Pigeon, Istabraq and Hurricane Fly still talked about in racing circles in the run up to the big event each year.

This year’s renewal is different to most previous running of the event in the sense that no previous winner will make the final field. Last season’s exciting winner Espoir d’Allen broke a shoulder during routine exercise last summer and was sadly euthanised.

The Cheltenham Festival betting on the race was turned upside down following that tragic event and a number of different horses have headed the market over the intervening months.

Prior to the 2019 Champion Hurdle all the focus was on two mares, Laurina and Apple’s Jade, but ultimately neither made the frame.

This time around we have two different mares towards the head of the market, Epatante and Honeysuckle.

Epatante represents the winning most trainer and owner of the race in Nicky Henderson (7 wins) and JP McManus (8 wins) and certainly has strong form coming into the race. She was most impressive on her last start in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton when routing some solid opposition that included decent yardsticks Silver Streak and Ballyandy. The one note of caution in relation to this lightly raced mare is that she was a well-beaten favourite for a Mares Novice Hurdle at last year’s Festival.

Honeysuckle is one of the most exciting horses in Ireland at the moment and boasts a perfect record of six from six on the track. She also won her only point-to-point outing as a four-year-old.

Her Cheltenham target had been the Mares Hurdle but such was the manner of her victory in the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle at Fairyhouse in early December that the Champion is now being muted.

Her next start in the Irish Champion Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival will answer many questions, not only about her Festival target, but also regarding her ability to race left-handed as all previous wins on the racecourse have been in the opposite direction.

Envoi Allen another potential superstar from Ireland with an unblemished record of eight straight victories holds an entry in the Champion but is less likely to run here with the Ballymore Novices Hurdle his preferred Cheltenham target at this stage.

Last season’s Supreme Novice Hurdle winner Klassical Dream seemed like an obvious contender for this year’s Champion Hurdle until disappointing on his first two starts this term. It is too early to write him off but his stablemate Saldier is a safer alternative at this stage.

Pentland Hills which won the Triumph Hurdle twelve months ago is a stablemate of the current favourite Epatante with a reasonable chance. He travelled supremely well in a recent Grade 2 event on Heavy ground at Haydock on 18th January but managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory when nabbed on the line by Ballyandy. A sounder surface in Cheltenham would be in his favour but his resolution up the final climb in a Champion Hurdle is a question yet to be answered.

All said this year’s Champion Hurdle looks a tricky puzzle to solve but we have a fascinating contest in store for Tuesday 10th March.