Champion Hurdle

A two mile sprint race for the fastest hurdlers in national hunt racing. An ability to travel well at speed and jump without losing momentum is crucial.

Champion Hurdle Trends

All out of the last ten winners had previously run well at the Cheltenham Festival (at least fourth) with eight out of ten previous winners at the Festival

All of the last 10 winners had it's final prep run within 51 days (mid to late January).

Nine out of the last ten winners won at least one race that season

Nine of the last ten winners were aged six to nine

Champion Hurdle Trends Analysis

From the above trends the two that stand out are the need for previous Festival form and the age of the winner to be six to nine.

If we look at the age requirement first the above trend can be cut back even further if we are radical with five and nine year olds.

One of the most well known stats in NH racing was the poor performance of five year olds in the Champion Hurdle until Katchit made a whole in that statistic but even with his victory horses of that age are still one win from EIGHTY attempts since the previous five year old winner Kribenisis in 1990.

Similarly there has only been three horses older than eight years old win the Champion Hurdle since 1951. Rooster Booster was the last of these and he probably was a late maturing horse which is fairly unusual for a top class hurdler.

Champion Hurdle Tips

This means we should be looking for a horse aged six to eight and, touching on our other highlighted stat, one with top class previous Festival form.

Punjabi's slightly surprising win in the Champion Hurdle of 2009 can be backed up by his previous third placing in the race in 2008 and even the lightly raced winner of 2007, Sublimity, had previously finished fourth in a Supreme Novices Hurdle.

This stat would seem to count against current fancies Solwhit and Khyber Kim but would give plus points to the horses placed in last year's Champion Hurdle and other well fancied candidates such as Go Native

Go Native recorded a very similar time to Punjabi when winning last year's Supreme Novice and has looked by the far the most impressive candidate in 09/10. He will love decent ground and a fast pace so he is a confident tip to record another win in the Champion Hurdle for Ireland.

Back Go Native at the best odds by clicking on the bookmaker logo by its name below

Champion Hurdle Odds 2010

Champion Hurdle Odds for 2010 listed below. Click on the bookmaker logo next to your selection to bet at the best odds.

 

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