The 2018 rendition of the Champion Hurdle at The Cheltenham Festival will likely see last year’s winner Buveur d'Air go off as the shortest of all the short-priced favourites of the week.
Nicky Henderson’s remarkable inmate has won three on the trot this campaign, all of them in facile style in truth.
The only danger to his title defence might be him having forgotten how to roll his sleeves up after so many cushty days at the coalface.
He’s been wrapped in cotton wool by Henderson, who avoided sending him for a race in the Irish Champion Hurdle in order to avoid any possible complications ahead of his effort to become the first horse to retain the Champion Hurdle since Hardy Eustace.
He’s unbackable at those prices and tough to beat on all known form so we’ll be taking the ‘W/O Fav’ markets into account when sizing up alternatives.
My Tent or Yours is the perennial bridesmaid amongst this crop of top-class hurdlers and will likely be on the premises once more at the grand old age of 11. It’s difficult to see him passing his stablemate barring catastrophe for that one, though.
Faugheen is one of the only horses that could beat an on-song Buveur D’Air if back to his best - or even if back to the level of his run in the Morgiana earlier in the season - but that is a sizable ‘if’ and he’s probably best avoided at the prices.
Wicklow Brave is the one we want to side with and we think that this dual-code performer can give some better-liked animals a rattle in just less than a week’s time.
He’ll be coming into this race off the back of a spell of recuperation after an unsuccessful tilt at the Melbourne Cup, just as he did last year.
He got obstinate at the start that time, losing six lengths at the start before travelling strongly into the race and going well for a long time.
He followed that up with a stunning win in the Champion Hurdle at Punchestown, comfortably holding off My Tent or Yours despite the fact that he was tardy at the start once more.
That display is a taste of what this Irish St. Leger winner can do from the front end when his individuality doesn't get the best of him entirely
Patrick Mullins has a fantastic relationship with the horse and it’d be a plus should he get the leg-up again. He can roll out in front and Buveur D’Air will have to run to near his best to come past him up the straight.
We’ll take a bit of him in the W/O Fav market and another smidgen each-way in the traditional market.
