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Champion Hurdle 2026

All you groupies are surely lumping on the 9/2 Golden Ace without 2. She's essentially got one horse to beat and that horse has ground and track concerns.
 
Brighterdaysahead probably ran her best race ever at Cheltenham, the ground was no bother, but it wasn't Leopardstown, Lossiemouth loves the Cotswold gaff and was on it like a car bonnet and, in truth, daylight was second.

What else?

Oh, yeah, once a ponderous aquatic vehicle with all the speed of an oil tanker, always a ponderous aquatic vehicle with all the speed of an oil tanker....

The

New

BOAT
 
Lossiemouth made it look like a walk in the park today, great to see. Could see she had the spark in her today in parade ring and parade to start, she was ready to do her thing. Whereas at Punched town she didn't have ground to her liking nor did she seem herself before the race

VF x
 
Ian_Davies said:
Brighterdaysahead probably ran her best race ever at Cheltenham, the ground was no bother, but it wasn't Leopardstown, Lossiemouth loves the Cotswold gaff and was on it like a car bonnet and, in truth, daylight was second.

What else?

Oh, yeah, once a ponderous aquatic vehicle with all the speed of an oil tanker, always a ponderous aquatic vehicle with all the speed of an oil tanker....

The

New

BOAT
Click to expand...
HMS The New Lion sets sail
 
Lossie was positively glowing. I mentioned that she was bucking in the video and she looked great in the pre-parade. Fully deserved but Alexei :love: - yeah OK he only managed 4th but he ran a blinder until that last fence mistake or he would have been a fine second. I am thrilled that he ran as well and vindicated my faith in him since I saw him in that charity race with Tom Malone.
 
tiggers1972 said:
HMS The New Lion sets sail
Click to expand...

In fairness to the boat he did a lot better than I expected him to, travelled very well for the most part. I'm still looking at my stayers hurdle ticket and weeping though :( Perhaps I can edit the 2026 to 2027 on it.
 
Danny said:
In fairness to the boat he did a lot better than I expected him to, travelled very well for the most part. I'm still looking at my stayers hurdle ticket and weeping though :( Perhaps I can edit the 2026 to 2027 on it.
Click to expand...
You can't help think that Skelton has got it wrong, he should have been running HMS The New Lion in The Stayers and Kabral yesterday.
Then again I'll guess he'll lean in time that dealing with horses that run in Grade 1 is miles apart from stopping handicappers for most of the season.
 
There is a strong argument for saying there are too many Grade 1s at the Cheltenham Festival and it dilutes the quality and competition.

There was at one point both a novice hurdle and novice chase at 2m, the intermediate trip and 3m plus until the intermediate trip novice chase became a handicap, but the missing piece in too big a jigsaw was always an intermediate trip Grade 1 outright championship over hurdles.

The New Lion would surely have won such a race and I've always been of the opinion he'd have had more chance in a Stayers' Hurdle than a Champion Hurdle.

Not the best Champion Hurdle yesterday, but not the worst either, the 7lb gender allowance is generous over Jumps and, yes, he's run better against the mares over the trip than I expected him to.

But he really needs to go further now and surely the Aintree Hurdle beckons.
 

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