The Road to the 2017 Champion Hurdle

I'm also happy with the 33/1 I have about Sceau Royal who is getting very positive reports from King in his Weekender column today. This one has almost disappeared off the radar following his poor run in the FF but King says he wasn't right when he came home from that race. Runs in the Kingwell. I might go in again in anticipation of a win there but will decide when I see how that race shapes up. There has to be the chance SR won't be 100% there though as they won't want to leave his Champion hopes in Wincanton.
 
Irving, Ivan Grozny, The New One, Cyrus Darius and L'Ami Serge among the 10 entries for Champion Hurdle Trial at Haydock on Sat
 
If all do what they say they are going to do the Champion Hurdle picture which is as clear as mud should be cleaned up a bit.

Young pretenders Brain Power and Yanworth are said too be set to clash.
Brain Power shot up the ratings recently and is only 2lbs Yanworth and a win could see Yanworth switching to the Stayers Hurdle.

On the other hand a comprehensive beating from Yanworth might leave Brain Power in limbo with nowhere to race if the OH decide to leave him on 162 and raise Yanworth 4 or 5 lbs.

Either way it should be interesting to see if the 20lbs rise was justified

If Faugheen turns up there will be no hiding place for him if he is not 100%. For me Petit Mouchoir is the most improved hurdler around despite people saying NC never ran his race.
De Bromhead took the scalp of a Champion Hurdler in this race before when Sizing Europe had Hardy Eustace for breakfast

If that were to happen here :blink: It could turn the Champion Hurdle market on it's head.

A lot to look forward to if it happens and I could see Petit Mouchoir and Yanworth being the ones who come out on top
 
Diamond Geezer said:
Irving, Ivan Grozny, The New One, Cyrus Darius and L'Ami Serge among the 10 entries for Champion Hurdle Trial at Haydock on Sat
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Looks more like a line up for an Isle of Man Champion Hurdle Trial:lol:

Irving The New One and Ivan Grozny if he comes over will be interesting to see which come out on top. Boring old The New One should be way too good for them

Bet365 Handicap Chase on the same card I am over the cliff at 16/1 On Tour...definitely a good race in him sometime soon
 
Cyrus is one I've been waiting for but gutted he is going back hurdling. Id love to see him placed in the Haydock race as i think he has the quality to do something in the CH.
 
Malcolm Jefferson wouldn't run him needing it Digger. not in a race like this, it's not his style..
Perth was a terrible experience for him so I doubt they will go chasing again anytime soon.
I'd love to see him beat this lot and cause a ripple or 2 in the Champion Hurdle as right now the race needs a boost
Just can't bare the thought of The New One winning, knowing he is no threat to anything in the Champion Hurdle
 
When was the last time the Haydock "trial" (don't make me laugh) had any bearing on the big one?

When was the last time the winner of the race got within eight lengths of the winner of the big one?

They struggled to get close in the Kingwell next time out, ffs.

Saturday's race is about as relevant to the Champion Hurdle as the Grand National.
 
Desert Orchid said:
When was the last time the Haydock "trial" (don't make me laugh) had any bearing on the big one?

When was the last time the winner of the race got within eight lengths of the winner of the big one?

They struggled to get close in the Kingwell next time out, ffs.

Saturday's race is about as relevant to the Champion Hurdle as the Grand National.
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Well the winner will come from the ICH so we may as well stop all the other "trials"
 
Desert Orchid said:
When was the last time the Haydock "trial" (don't make me laugh) had any bearing on the big one?

When was the last time the winner of the race got within eight lengths of the winner of the big one?

They struggled to get close in the Kingwell next time out, ffs.

Saturday's race is about as relevant to the Champion Hurdle as the Grand National.
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I reckon it's largely to do with the ground at Haydock, DO.

Because it's inevitably Soft, it draws small fields anyway, and whilst you might get one high-class horse in the race, the rest of the field are generally aspirant handicappers. Winners just tend not to be suited by the completely different demands of Cheltenham, where it's usually appreciably faster, and they are often outclassed anyway. As a Champion Hurdle trial, it's generally one in name only, imo.
 
Desert Orchid said:
When was the last time the Haydock "trial" (don't make me laugh) had any bearing on the big one?

When was the last time the winner of the race got within eight lengths of the winner of the big one?

They struggled to get close in the Kingwell next time out, ffs.

Saturday's race is about as relevant to the Champion Hurdle as the Grand National.
Click to expand...

Grassy makes a fair point about the ground. Wouldn't be so bad if it was run on soft ground but in 11 years it's either been run on heavy or abandoned.

Not many good horses go there. The New One has won it twice, Celestial Halo won it Punjabi was 2nd in it.

The best horse to win it was probably Inglis Drever who won it and the World Hurdle for Howard Johnson in the same year.

I think it's more that it does not attract Champion Hurdles rather then the winners not being suited by Cheltenham.......Horses like Melodic Rendezvous and Snap Tie ran it but were never serious contenders.

That of course could change in a flash so you simply can't say it will never have a bearing on the CH.....strange thing about racehorses they can suddenly improve immensely and surprise even the best of us.

Did you see Thistlecrack coming when he won the Doom Bar at 25/1 by 12 lengths or something ? :p
 
Not exactly conclusive, but worth noting:

"Both worked well this morning and both have been pleasing me a lot more at home than they have been," Mullins told At The Races.

"What I would like to do is get Faugheen there [the Irish Champion Hurdle] and get Annie Power to the mares' race at Punchestown. That would be the ideal scenario."
 
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I had a quick run through my figures for the race last night.

Faugheen and Annie Power, with her allowance, stand out but after that the ba's up on the slates.

MTOY would need to run to his very best form and hope others didn't improve for him to be third.

As mentioned elsewhere, I went high with both Brain Power (last time) and Sceau Royal (Wincanton) and any further improvement could put them ahead of MTOY so if only one of Mullins's runs they could be battling it out for second place and if the Mullins rep isn't at the top of his/her game...

Plenty of ifs and buts but 33/1 remains far too big for Sceau Royal, especially with the NRNB concession and three places, while 12/1 is maybe BP's correct price now. I might try and lay the latter off at around that price.

Petit Mouchoir might well have won at Newcastle but I get the impression King felt SR would have won that day if he had been right.
 
Grasshopper said:
Not exactly conclusive, but worth noting:

"Both worked well this morning and both have been pleasing me a lot more at home than they have been," Mullins told At The Races.

"What I would like to do is get Faugheen there [the Irish Champion Hurdle] and get Annie Power to the mares' race at Punchestown. That would be the ideal scenario."
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Worth noting anything that comes out his mouth? Really, have you not learnt your lesson?
 
He probably is telling the truth now!!! I said a couple of months ago the plan with both horses was to do what he did with Annie last season....one run late on and straight to Cheltenham.

Everything else about them ready to run in between was just bullshit IMO .........don't need a lot of smarts to work out the best plan for Annie is same again and why risk Faugheen after injury when u don't have to......one run no run for him and Mullins knows he can get him 100% on the day unless he injures himself
 
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