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Champion Hurdle 2014

Jezki won the Novice Champion Hurdle at Punchestown last year by 16l ridden by Geraghty-who is 5/5 on the horse. It was when he was held up by AP that he was beaten by the Fly. Let the horse have his head, within reason, setting his own pace if need be. He has proven he stays. Quite probably the hood helped at Cheltenham but I feel Geraghty and the right tactics also played a part. I'm not a horseman and therefore I cannot be certain.
 
Willie Mullins has given the clearest indication yet that brilliant Sky Bet Supreme Novices' Hurdle winner Vautour could be campaigned with a potential Champion Hurdle tilt in mind next season.

The five-year-old produced a dominant front-running display in the Cheltenham Festival curtain-raiser last month, after which connections appeared to be favouring sending the youngster over fences next term.

However, Ireland's champion trainer has suggested either Vautour or stable companion Faugheen, winner of the Neptune Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham, could remain over smaller obstacles.

Asked whether a Stan James Champion Hurdle bid would be considered for Vautour, Mullins told At The Races: "We have to look at that. It's always nice to have a Champion Hurdle horse.

"Hurricane Fly is not getting any younger and Un De Sceaux still has to prove he's a Champion Hurdle contender. The way he (Un De Sceaux) jumped his hurdles in France, he might be a chaser, and a very good one.

"Faugheen doesn't strike me as a Champion Hurdle horse, but who knows. He's possibly good enough to come back to two miles because he can keep up such a good gallop and maybe he'd be better jumping at two miles.

"They are all things we are going to have to decide and we'll make a decision on that during the summer.

"I would imagine one of them will be kept for a Champion Hurdle campaign next year."
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Bit of money for both on Betfair today.

I've been watching closely, and the current 8.0 about Vautour is as short as he's been - Powers 8/1 a standout in general market. By comparison, Faugheen is 24 on Big Blue and a general 16/1 chance in the few markets where they've bothered to introduce him.

Might as well out it now that I've been backing Vautour (high 12.0, low 9.4).
 
Was hoping he would go chasing. Just hope that if/when he wins the Champion he doesn't keep him hurdling.
 
Surely it's a no brainer he would be aimed at the Champion Hurdle. When I watched him win at Cheltenham I never gave the Arkle next year athought and was shocked when they said he'd go chasing. I think alot of people thought the same.

As far as I can see he'll hvae nothing to beat in the Chapion Hurdle. MTOY will beat himself. The Fly is now a memory where the CH is concerned and the New One wouldn't win it if he set off now because he simply doesn't have the mid race pace to go with them at the top of the hill........they would all have to stop dead for him to catch them

Jezki only one because age and a fairly tough season caught up wuith Hurricene fly who probably left his race back when he was all out to beat Our Conor. I refuse to believe had Our Conor not been killed in the race that Jezki would have beaten him.....The form was solid and had Hurricane Fly run his race and our Conor stood up they would have both upheld it. I doubt if Jezki improved to win it it was just the way things turned out.

I certasinly wouldn't be backing any of those three to beat this young horse who looks even more special than Our Conor RIP did.
 
Dear. oh dear, Tan, you don't change, do you? :)
Jezki won the CH because he got a solid pace, and settled better anyway, due to the addition of the visor. He'd already thrashed Our Conor once - even under an indifferent AP ride - and doubtless would have done so again, had his pacemaker done half the job he was there for.
In case you've forgotten, Jezki's only previous hurdles defeat came in the hottest Supreme we've seen for years - form that has been stamped as absolute solid gold time and time again throughout the season - and there's little doubt there's more to come shortly.
Instead of concerning yourself with could-have-beens and might be's, why not accept there's one horse who's already been there, done it, and walked away with the T shirt? ;)
 
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That's a dangerous thing to be thinking Reet........I like an idiot thought the same about my old favourite Sizing Europe yesterday. One run, especially in a Champion Hurdle, doesn't mean you write a horse who has one more Grade 1's than any horse I can remember...I seem to remember tipping up Tidal Bay and Kauto Star on here when almost everyone elkse had written them off.

If you think for one minute Jezki will uphold Cheltenham form with Hurricane Fly and beat him a similar distance, if at all, then maybe I'll put you out to grass :lol:

I certainly couldn't bring myself to back Jazki to win another Champion Hurdle

It's a pretty safe bet that the runner up is MTOY is unlikely to be sticking to hurdles. There's very little confidence that he could ever win a Champion Hurdle which just about sums up Jezki's chances of a repeat.

In a flash it went from being a top class Champion Hurdle to a bit of a farce and Hurricane Fly running way below his best made it even more so...for me Jezki was a lucky winner and is very beatable and the Fly will prove that this week.


That aside hat did you think of Faugheen yesterday? Ruby reckons WM will be scratching his head wondering what to do re him and Vautour.

Mind you I lumped on at around 1.61 thinking he was a 1.3 shot against that lot but you couldn't help but be impressed.

I genuinely think WM won't have a clue now which should go where but I will stick with Vatour and keep my fingers crossed it turns out that way.

Your own thoughts after yesterday ?
 
I don't buy into this 'poor Champion Hurdle', Fist, or that the Fly ran well below form. There were 4 high class and highly consistent horses at the front, and CCB probably ran his best for a while through being allowed to bowl at proper racing pace. Neither do I subscribe to this HF not being a Cheltenham horse. He won 2 CH's by running close to his best RPR, and the year he didn't, Ruby was adamant the horse didn't feel right coming down the hill. There was a marked absence of excuses this year, and that alone is enough to suggest his better days are behind him.
Grand horse though Sizing Europe is, there was no Jezki in his romp yesterday.

Tbh, I haven't even watched the Faugheen race yet, though a glance through the form shows him no better at 2m than Vautour. While he'd be better over further, his owner seems committed to the hurdle route, though he might be chasing rainbows expecting a 3m winner to take a Champion Hurdle.
 
hmmm

“He’s only 10 and he’s still a relatively young horse in National Hunt terms and he is injury free. I think he’s still got one or two Grade Ones left in him and we might just go up in trip.
“He might have lost the dash he needs against younger horses at shorter trips but I would have no problem going out in trip with him,” he said yesterday.

‘His races’
“The older he’s got, the better he’s settling in his races and his body language the last day tells me he has settled down. Going up in trip may be the way to go. I certainly wouldn’t be writing him off just yet,” Mullins added.
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I don't buy that HF ran a long way below his best this year at Cheltenham. He was less than two lengths further behind Jezki than he was the other day.

He's been gifted one G1 after another in Ireland for a few seasons and got lucky with at least one of his two Cheltenham wins (race fell in his lap last year and the 2011 was full of stayers) and the worry is that we're going through another moderate era of 2-mile hurdlers.

I reckon I could stick on my trainers and beat the current lot round Cheltenham.
 
Desert Orchid said:
I don't buy that HF ran a long way below his best this year at Cheltenham. He was less than two lengths further behind Jezki than he was the other day.

He's been gifted one G1 after another in Ireland for a few seasons and got lucky with at least one of his two Cheltenham wins (race fell in his lap last year and the 2011 was full of stayers)......
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It is this kind of utter, undiluted horse-sh*it that I will be policing from now until the end if time.
 
Grasshopper said:
It is this kind of utter, undiluted horse-sh*it that I will be policing from now until the end if time.
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Indeed.

There should be no rubbishing a fine horse - winning 2 champion hurdles beating such giants as Peddlers Cross, Rock on Ruby and Countrywide Flame is no mean achievement.

I would position the legend that is The Fly up there with the best Champion Hurdle winners of the last 10 years such as Punjabi and Sublimity.

It's only jealousy from others GH, try to ignore them.. :cool:
 
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I would be in favour of keeping HF in training -plenty of nice races to be won-winning at Grade 1 level again isn't beyond him.
 
Seriously, on form his Champion Hurdles are not really any better on lines through the placed horses..
 
To me a Champion Hurdler is exactly that not some Rock On Ruby that pops up on the day wina Champion Hurdle then runs like a cow for the rest of the season.

There aren't really too many you could brand with the title of True Champion.

Night Nurse

Fighting Fifth Hurdle (1975)
Irish Sweeps Hurdle (1975)
Champion Hurdle (1976, 1977)
Scottish Champion Hurdle (1976)
Welsh Champion Hurdle (1976, 1977)
Templegate Hurdle (dead heat)(1977)
William Hill Hurdle
Free Handicap Hurdle

Persian War

Victor Ludorum Hurdle (1967)
Triumph Hurdle (1967)
Schweppes Gold Trophy (1968)
Champion Hurdle (1968, 1969, 1970)
Lonsdale Handicap Hurdle (1969)
Welsh Champion Hurdle (1969)
Irish Sweeps Hurdle (1970)

Bula

Gloucestershire Hurdle (Div II) (1970)
Osborne Hurdle (1970,1972)
Benson & Hedges Handicap Hurdle (1970)
Mill House Hurdle (1971,1973)
Kingwell Hurdle (1971,1972)
Champion Hurdle (1971, 1972)
Welsh Champion Hurdle (1971)
Skeaping Trophy Hurdle (1971)
Cheltenham Trial Hurdle (1972)

Istabraq

Champion Hurdle (1998, 1999, 2000)
Irish Champion Hurdle (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001)
Future Champions Novice Hurdle (1996)
Royal Bond Novice Hurdle (1996)
Deloitte Novice Hurdle (1997)
Royal & SunAlliance Novices' Hurdle (1997)
Punchestown Champion Novice Hurdle (1997)
Hatton's Grace Hurdle (1997, 1998)
December Festival Hurdle (1997, 1998, 1999, 2001)
Aintree Hurdle (1999)
Punchestown Champion Hurdle (1999)
John James McManus Memorial Hurdle (1997, 1998, 1999)

No one could ever say any of them were not true Champions

Hurricane Fly

Prix de Longchamp Hurdle (2008)
Royal Bond Novice Hurdle (2008)
Future Champions Novice Hurdle (2008)
Evening Herald Champion Novice Hurdle (2009)
Punchestown Champion Hurdle (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013)
Hatton's Grace Hurdle (2010)
December Festival Hurdle (2010, 2012, 2013)
Irish Champion Hurdle (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014)
Champion Hurdle (2011, 2013)
Morgiana Hurdle (2012, 2013)

His record speaks for itself. You could argue some of the opposition in Ireland was ordinary but horses like Thousand Stars Solwhit Dunquib Voler La Vedette proved on several occasions they were far from ordinary.......The Fly just made them look that way.

The fact is he won 2 Champion Hurdles and for 3 years never fell below a rating of 172 peaking at 175. In 23 races he lost only twice and if he wasn't a real all round Champion then there has never been one.
 
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I absolutely agree. I was against him this season but not because I had any doubts about him being a true champion, simply because I felt he was not the force he was, and the younger brigade had caught up.

I know it's subjective but I still have Istabraq as the better of the two.

Of the older brigade it's harder to split Persian War and Night Nurse. Bula a true champ but not quite as good in my opinion. I suspect Persian War could have achieved even more if he didn't have a fruitcake of an owner, and may have shaded Night Nurse at his peak.
 
Everyone agrees Hurricane Fly is one of the very best.
Personally I think Istabraq was better,

This thread is Champion Hurdle 2014.
Who won in 2014 -Jezki
End of.
 
Maruco said:
I absolutely agree. I was against him this season but not because I had any doubts about him being a true champion, simply because I felt he was not the force he was, and the younger brigade had caught up.

I know it's subjective but I still have Istabraq as the better of the two.

Of the older brigade it's harder to split Persian War and Night Nurse. Bula a true champ but not quite as good in my opinion. I suspect Persian War could have achieved even more if he didn't have a fruitcake of an owner, and may have shaded Night Nurse at his peak.
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Henry Alper was a greedy interfering old sod and no doubt was totally responsible for Persian War losing some races but as he demanded he ran in everything going I doubt if Persian War would have won more races he'd just have lost less.

As a kid I was viewing Persian War with rose coloured glasses. I remember backing him at 10/1 in a handicap hurdle (probably the Lonsgdale if someone has old records) when he was set an impossible task giving lumps of weight to everything........all I remember of the race is his white cap circling the field before the home turn and me screaming like a looney. I doubt if there was a bigger fan on the planet.


That said Bula is probably the most difficult to work out in terms of ranking.

He won race after race 13 on the trot and in his prime had the most powerful finish of any Champion Hurdle I have witnessed.

What makes accessing him difficult is Persian War was nearing the end of his career when Bula beat him hands down in the 71 Champion. However on the day Persian War ran right up to form with his old rival Major Rose. So either both Persian War and Major Rose had gone back at the same time or Bula was one exceptional horse.

His defeat by Comedy of Errors for years was one of the most privately talked about races among NH trainers jockeys. Paul Kellaway who rode What A Myth for Capt Ryan Price of Schweppes gambles fame rode him as usual but the ride fell under a lot of suspicion. Shortly afterwards Kellaway was replaced by Richard Pitman as number 1 for Fred Winter.


I would have to agree about Istabraq who won his Champion Hurdles with such ease it's hard to imagine anything beating him. No doubt Night Nurse had the speed and determination to have given him more than a little to think about but as Istabraq was so good he was never under any pressure in his Champion Hurdles it's hard to know how much more was in the tank............I'd say a helluva lot and he's probably the best we've ever seen.
 

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