The Road To The 2018 Champion Hurdle

Who will win the 2018 CH

  • Buveur D'Air

    Votes: 17 54.8%

  • Faugheen

    Votes: 10 32.3%

  • Other

    Votes: 4 12.9%
  • Total voters
    31
  • Poll closed .
Not the ending we wanted for Faugheen, really wanted the match up in March. That said at least he got out in one piece and hopefully a happy retirement beckons.
 
That really is a sad sight, never nice to see something go wrong with an animal, but this is very sad for Faugheen and connections, given the amazing performance he put in last time out which re-ignited the excitement for all racing fans.

Really hope nothing serious comes to light but the pessimist in me says we won't see him on a racecourse again.
 
Rich Ricci said on ATR there no obvious injury. Try and get him home & regather for March.


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Connections refusing to be too pessimistic, but chances of Faugheen making the Festival are surely slim-to-zero now.

I can’t them running him unless he was 100% fit, and I can’t see how they could make that call, without him having another run beforehand.....which seems almost impossible after an outing like that, and the limited time (5 weeks?) to the ICH.

If that’s the last we see if him on a racecourse, it will be such a shame.....but that seems to be the way with a lot of the truly great ones.
 
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Indeed it would Grass. Ricci seemed to be clinging to the fact that Djak, Yorkhill, Karalee and a few more ran well below par. That maybe there’s a bug or something in the yard and perhaps that’s a similar situation with Faugheen!!

The fact the vets could find nothing obvious makes it all the more of a head scratcher really. I presume they’ll get him scoped and do bloods now etc to try and throw some light on the issue.

A real shame if that’s the last we see of him. That Irish Champion Hurdle performance was one of the best I’ve ever seen. Sadly it will rob of us of the match up we all wanted to see next March.

I can see them diverting Min or Yorkhill to the champion hurdle now. VVM could be another possibility.


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Kauto Abu said:
I can see them diverting Min or Yorkhill to the champion hurdle now. VVM could be another possibility.


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Click to expand...

Yorkie id say as I think Willie would like to be right in how he framed that one working out.

Was VVM retired?

She is short of too class in any case.

Samcro maybe if he romps home in Naas*

*no chance
 
Possibly but I’d imagine Ricci will want a runner in it. Lets Dance is an option but would fall well short.


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Really wish I stuck a courtesy £20 On Yorkhill when he was 25s for this.

No Faugheen busts a lot of my accas, including the ones with Might Bite and the King George in them.

Stupid of myself, I wish the horse no harm and is up there with one of the best I've seen. Just kicking myself for being so stupid.

Back to the drawing board now. Picking my bets carefully now as I'm already 3 figures down before Cheltenhams even started. From the joys of boxing day, to the despair of today.

Don't feel to sorry for me though, I won a fortune on Might Bite. Just gutted half the bets I took a long time on are finished with Faugheen.
 
If there's a problem we'll fix it. There's plenty of time before Cheltenham" - assistant trainer Patrick Mullins on Faugheen

Yesterday well before Faugheen ran I did say Mullins horses were running like drains despite having a couple of winners.

When's the last time Mullins, at a festival, had a period where he was 1/29 ? .his horses have been dropping like flies running way below what was expected...then he had a couple of winners then Faugheen like many of his other horses runs like a drain

You can bet whatever was affecting them is exactly the same as what caused Faugheen to be pulled up.

The difference with him is he is such a powerhouse if he has caught something it would be much more noticeable as the zip would be the first thing to go

I hope I am right on this and those pessimist who wrote him off 2 seconds after the race are wrong..I doubt we have seen the last of him
 
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Maruco said:
If I had to guess I think Hobbs is down to limited runners because all's not well in the yard KA
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I think you're right, Chris Cook was writing about the poor form of the yard before Xmas and how it might be worth giving DDS another chance.

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Faugheen 11/4 NRNB with Bet365.

Worth a few quid. They've also gone NRNB on the Champion Chase, Stayers, Gold Cup and Ryanair. Leading the way still for me.
 
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