Go Native £1m Bid

All eyes are going to be firmly glued to today’s Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival not least because Go Native, the bookies favourite to win the race, is also up for a £1 million bonus.

Go Native has qualified for a pop at the £1 million bonus offered by WBX by winning the Fighting Fifth Hurdle and the Christmas Hurdle and is now just eight hurdles away from scooping the incredible jackpot that’s up for grabs, ensuring a windfall for owners, trainer and stable staff. In fact, the stable lad who looks after Go Native will get £100,000 if he wins which is nearly six times his annual salary!

Make no mistake though, this will not be an easy race to win and will be extremely close with nine of the twelve runners priced up by bookmakers at 12-1 or less. Competition is fierce with Binocular, Kyber Kim, Punjabi, Celestial Halo and Solwhit all in contention so the Champion Hurdle is expected to be one of the most competitive races at this year’s festival.

Speaking about Go Native, trainer Noel Meade said on Monday: “The horse travelled over great and is in great shape. In fact I couldn’t be happier with him. He looked great this morning and cantered on the track. He was nice and fresh. Paul [Carberry] said he couldn’t have asked for him to be any better than he was. He is a very good jumper and he has plenty of toe.”

Can Go Native do it? He’ll be hard to beat but with so much money riding on a winning performance let’s hope that Paul Carberry’s nerves hold up…

Bet on Go Native with Paddy Power Bookmakers.