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Road to the 2022 Champion Hurdle

As I said before...I look at it the other way round..On Heavy Ground he was only 2.6seconds faster than the Juvenile hurdle on the same card

On Good to soft ground he was 6 and 7 seconds faster than 2 handicap hurdle winners carrying less weight than him on the day.

That surely indicates he at least as good on good to soft

I agree you wouldn't want to run him on fast ground but where is he going to encounter that these days?
 
Shocking field for a so-called Champion Hurdle trial at Haydock this Saturday.

Tommy's Oscar is 11lbs and more ahead of everything else on ORs and is rightly odds-on. If the Hamiltons were worried abut shelling out £500 to enter the horse for the Champion Hurdle itself, they can at least pick up nearly £43k in winning prize money for what should be a bit of a lap of honour.

From my own point of view, the win wouldn't guarantee a cut in odds for the Champion itself. He'd probably have to do it very impressively and I can't see him being asked to leave his outside chances of success at Cheltenham behind here.

I'd anticipate a cosy rather than impressive win.
 
Tanlic said:
As I said before...I look at it the other way round..On Heavy Ground he was only 2.6seconds faster than the Juvenile hurdle on the same card

On Good to soft ground he was 6 and 7 seconds faster than 2 handicap hurdle winners carrying less weight than him on the day.

That surely indicates he at least as good on good to soft

I agree you wouldn't want to run him on fast ground but where is he going to encounter that these days?
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Times are nigh meaningless in heavy ground contests, but, CH's action, and hurdling, suggest he'll improve on better ground,and'll be high class because of it,imo.
 
reet hard said:
Times are nigh meaningless in heavy ground contests, but, CH's action, and hurdling, suggest he'll improve on better ground,and'll be high class because of it,imo.
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jinnyj said:
CH won in spite of the ground IMO. It is true that some horses handle it far better than others but can only excel on heavy. From his action he does not look like a horse that isn’t going to be better on decent ground. And that is very exciting.
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It seeems like we are all in agreement
 
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Desert Orchid said:
Shocking field for a so-called Champion Hurdle trial at Haydock this Saturday.
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It's a field that is fitting for a race named for a horse that never won a Grade 1 over 2 miles.

It's a disgrace that a 'Champion Hurdle trial' bears The New One's name.
 
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Could be worse Grassy. Its a bit like saying The Red Rum Chase should not be called the Red Rum Chase because he never ran in it or won it.

The Sponsor have been kind enough to put up a decent prize of 26k to the winner which is hardly worthy of using a name Like Istabraq so they go for one a bit down the ladder.

The New One ran a dozen times at Cheltenham including in 4 Champion Hurdles won the Ballymore and 3 or 4 Champion Hurdle trials.

His owner deserves some credit even if only being a great supporter of the race
 
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Grasshopper said:
It's a field that is fitting for a race named for horse that never won a Grade 1 over 2 miles.

It's a disgrace that a 'Champion Hurdle trial' bears The New One's name.
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I agree but it's still billed as a CH trial and it's anything but. I can't be arsed to look through the past winners of the race but I reckon Rooster Booster might have been the last CHer to win it, and he didn't win the CH subsequently.

Still, if it shows T'sO to be fit and well, that'll do me. Heavy ground isn't an issue for him but that ground often throws up form that can't be taken at face value, like when RB only just held off Self-Defense of all donkeys at Sandown in the Contenders' Hurdle.

As an aside, I think I had TNO around the 162-164 mark at his best and never fancied him in a CH. Take Honeysuckle out of the equation and are the current contenders much better than that?
 
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You need to go even further back, DO.

Granville Again and Flakey Dove are - I think - the only two horses to have won this on the way to winning a Champion Hurdle.

Basically, I'm just using this part of the thread to have a cheap shot at TNO. :D
 
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Would make absolutely no sense to miss the Champion Hurdle for a 42k cavalry charge when2nd place in the Champion Hurdle is worth 72k and 3rd 36k

Plus there's too many Belfast Banters hiding in the woodwork to be confident of a win
 
granger said:
An abysmal race otherwise
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Not if Tommy's Oscar ends up winning it :lol:

(I'm allowed to dream.)

Edited to add:

Was Appreciate It not rated either doubtful to run this season or supposed to be going chasing?

It hasn't been on my radar until now for this race but if he turns up fit and well he'll give Honeysuckle the kind of spanking reserved for hard-core porn films.

(I'm told.)
 
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I'm told ?..must be great having a direct line to Williw Mullin:blink:

Pity he forgot to mentioned that they decided after he missed his first chase they said he would stay hurdling

Or if he is likely to run or not.

On a realistic note Paul Towsend hasn't even sat on him at home and all he has said RP is he looks fine......hardly inspiring but if anyone can get him ready it's WPM
 
The big question has to be has Appreciate It actually had the time in good health to improve since the Supreme?

It doesn't take genius to run the two races side by side from 3 out and see how far ahead Honeysuckle was at the line

She's agood 3 to 4 lengths at the last and increases that lead by the time she gets to the winning post.

In a normal build up you could argue the Supreme winner should improve but no Supreme winner has won the CH since Bula.

Considering she just broke Bula's long stanfing record I simply can't see AI breaking the trend after his setbacks
 
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Desert Orchid said:
Not if Tommy's Oscar ends up winning it :lol:

(I'm allowed to dream.)

Edited to add:

Was Appreciate It not rated either doubtful to run this season or supposed to be going chasing?

It hasn't been on my radar until now for this race but if he turns up fit and well he'll give Honeysuckle the kind of spanking reserved for hard-core porn films.

(I'm told.)
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AI was due to go chasing but was late starting so they didnt bother

He will need a prep at Gowran to run in this surely
 
The Grade 3 Red Mills Trial Hurdle at the end of the month could be an easy option to get a run into him.

It's usual 3 plus weeks before the Champion Hurdle
 
Willie had Klassical Dream ready to beat Flooring Porter first time up for a while.

I think when it really matters they know what they need to do at home to get them 110%.

If it goes and wins he'll probably come out and say the horse is easy to get fit but they did a couple of racecourse gallops anyway.
 

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