2014 Champion Hurdle

Champion Hurdle 2 miles 110 yards

One of the greatest renewals of any race never mind the Champion Hurdle! There are five top-class horses in this race so obviously I'm going to be backing someone else in the race! 

Hurricane Fly is quite simply a legend in the sport of horse racing. Holder of the world record number of Grade 1 victories. Twice a winner of this race in 2011 and 2013 (he wasn't fit in 2010 and perhaps not quite right when third in 2012). However, all good things come to an end and the question is whether this is the year it ends, He will probably have to run the greatest race in his life as his opposition is full of top-class horses. Hurricane Fly is ten years old and only Hatton's Grace and Sea Pigeon have won this race at that age since its inception in 1927 (oddly both horses won it at eleven as well). This task was too much for that other great recent hurdler Istabraq who was sent off as a ten-year-old favourite in 2002. He was pulled up after a couple of flights. However, Istabraq was definitely on the downgrade and a really poor value favourite. Hurricane Fly looks at the peak of his powers winning all his three races this season (all Grade 1 races). 

There is an interesting point about Hurricane Fly. He's unbeaten at Leopardstown but his Cheltenham form is certainly less good. Will the other horses have a better chance today? They'd be no more popular winner than 'The Fly" but he needs to be at the top of his game.

Captain Cee Bee has been supplemented as a pacemaker (unless something very odd is going on). This thirteen-year-old has a good record at the Festival but his best days are many years ago. He might not run too badly and I doubt he will finish last.

Grumeti hasn't won a hurdle race since April 2012. He's ran well in the two runs at Cheltenham but he's making up the numbers here. I also don't like horses who have fallen in their career over hurdles.

Jezki has a 100% record for today's jockey Barry Geraghty (four wins from four races). A very consistent horse he is a major contender and he ran well in last year's Supreme Novices Hurdle. However, he hasn't won either of his last two races when he was ridden by AP McCoy. I think he's a bit unlucky that he's appeared at a time when there are other top-class hurdlers.

Melodic Rendezvous is going to be my choice at the prices on offer. He's had one weak race in his career when he was beaten into fifth place in Newcastle's Fighting Fifth hurdle. There is a risk he won't handle the quicker ground. However, he has won on good-to-soft so there may be too much of a feeling that he's just a soft ground horse.

My Tent Or Yours has to face the question of whether he will get up the hill this year. That was the query last year and he was outbattled by Champagne Fever in the Supreme Novices Hurdle. It's not impossible that he will do it this year (it's took Binocular three attempts to master this hill). However, I still have my doubts. He certainly couldn't be in better form.

Our Conor bids to be a rare five-year-old winner of the race. Katchit won at this age in 2007 but he was helped by the injury to Sizing Europe during the race. The previous five-year-old winner was See You Then. We don't know whether he was 'helped' by favourite Browne's Gazette ducking at the start and losing twenty lengths. I say 'helped' in this way as Browne's Gazette's jockey Dermot Browne admitted later in his career to corrupt acts in horse racing. He denies that this was one of the them and that they all happened in later years but we don't know. What we do know is that Our Conor destroyed the field in last year's Triumph Hurdle and won by fifteen lengths. He was not a normal four-year-old hurdler. However, he is another horse who has been beaten by Hurricane Fly two times this season. 

Ptit Zig has won a Grade 1 in Auteuil in France (that racecourse is pronounced nothing like how it is spelt). I wouldn't right him off running well as he looks like a good horse. However, he's another who has appeared at the wrong time.

The New One was an impressive winner of the Neptune Hurdle at last year's Festival. Horses to to have won that race and the Champion Hurdle were Istabraq and Hardy Eustace.  The New One certainly possesses the pace to be competitive at two miles. He has a wonderful record at Cheltenham. The one issue is that he can make a mistake. He should have beaten My Tent Or Yours in Kempton's Christmas Hurdle but made a mistake at the last which cost him victory. He has a great chance of victory if he jumps cleanly but at the pace this will be ran it is a very big 'if'.

I think Melodic Rendezvous has been forgotten by the public and I think is overpriced so he'll carry my money.