Road to the Champion Hurdle 2023

I was looking at the card for Saturday at Newcastle and have to say I'm disappointed with the small field sizes. Although seeing Constitution Hill and L Homme Presse will be nice.
 
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L'Homme Presse's race takes you back to the days when Arkle had to give away lumps of weights.

He has to give away 26lbs to a horse who has won his last 4 chases
Arkle tried to give to the virtual novice Buonna Notte the same weight and was beaten.......would have been by 5 lengths had BN not walked through the last.

No surprise he is odds againt as his task could be alot tougher than it looks on paper..

It should be a fascinating race to watch if Into Overdrive runs up to his best.
 
A fascinating FF Hurdle tomorrow . I still think Honeysuckle at 7-2 or 4-1 for the Champion Hurdle is insulting as big a fan of Constitution Hill as I was last year . CH evens strikes me as bonkers. That is the proper price for him making it to the race.
 
I hope Honeysuckle comes back as good as ever this season but I fear she won’t. State Man could turn out to be the best in Ireland this time round.

And Constitution Hill fans need to be careful what they wish for today. As EC21 and others have often pointed out, no horse has ever won both the Fighting Fifth and the Champion Hurdle in the same season. Just can’t be done, so winning today would ruin his chances for March :blink:
 
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I reckon he's so good he's got about 8 lengths up his sleeve but in a Champion Hurdle it only takes one bad mistake and that dvantage could be reduce to 2 or 3 lengths.

However there's no one better at presenting a good horse at a hurdle or fence than Nico so I am ultra confident he will win the Champion Hurdle.,

Despite having dutched Honeysuckle and Constitution Hill at 7/4 months ago I am tempted to take some 5/4 today.

If he hacks up and beats the Champion Hurdle runner up easily you won't get a sniff at 4/6 IMO
 
Jumped beautiful, one press of the button and he was gone.

Nothing beats that in the Champion Hurdle.
 
Tanlic said:
I reckon he's so good he's got about 8 lengths up his sleeve but in a Champion Hurdle it only takes one bad mistake and that dvantage could be reduce to 2 or 3 lengths.

However there's no one better at presenting a good horse at a hurdle or fence than Nico so I am ultra confident he will win the Champion Hurdle.,

Despite having dutched Honeysuckle and Constitution Hill at 7/4 months ago I am tempted to take some 5/4 today.

If he hacks up and beats the Champion Hurdle runner up easily you won't get a sniff at 4/6 IMO
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Well William Hill have gone 4/6 and even some 8/11 available but for how long?
 
I think Epatante's OR 154 under-rates her by about 6lbs but even looking at the form from her 154 mark, CH has given her 7lbs, was 8 lengths in front two out, 10 clear at the last and, despite easing down, some way more than that at the line. The official distances aren't out yet but we're looking at somewhere a long way north of 170 for CH. I reckon he has at least a 180 in him.

We need to enjoy him while we can. We never got the chance to enjoy Golden Cygnet.

Edit - officially 12 lengths. Probably value for 20.
 
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Grey said:
I hope Honeysuckle comes back as good as ever this season but I fear she won’t. State Man could turn out to be the best in Ireland this time round.

And Constitution Hill fans need to be careful what they wish for today. As EC21 and others have often pointed out, no horse has ever won both the Fighting Fifth and the Champion Hurdle in the same season. Just can’t be done, so winning today would ruin his chances for March :blink:
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Yeah and no horse who name stats with the letter Z and ends in Z has ever won the 2000 guineas.........Geezus wept:lol:
 
That was something very special. Hope he stays sound and the ground stays right for the rest of the season for him, but also that he doesn't scare off any opposition and ends up running against only a couple next time/times.
Night Nurse etc ran every 3 weeks so in terms of rating may not 'match' up, but in terms of toughness, endurability, go on any ground.. used to love watching NN, Sea Pigeon, Monksfield etc . Great era of race horses.
 
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