Cheltenham Race Festival » Champion Hurdle

Go Native £1m Bid

Cheltenham Races — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:24:50 +0000

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.

Solwhit for Champion Hurdle

Cheltenham Races — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:29:18 +0000

With the Cheltenham Festival starting tomorrow all final declarations for the races were due today. The Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle Challenge Trophy, which takes place at 3.20pm is one of the big races on the day and Solwhit has now been described as a “definite runner” by trainer Charles Byrnes and is one of 12 horses declared for the race.

The multiple Grade 1 winner’s participation in the race had been in doubt after he scoped dirty last week, but, after giving him the all-clear to run on Saturday, Byrnes confirmed plans. “He arrived over at Cheltenham around 5am and travelled over well but, given what has happened, we naturally wouldn’t be as confident as we were,” Byrnes told racingpost.com on Sunday afternoon.

“That said, we wouldn’t be here unless Solwhit was in top form.He seems very well in himself and he never appeared to be as sick as such, but he’ll be monitored and at the moment he’s a definite runner.”

Solwhit will have his work cut out for him if he is to go toe to toe with Irish raider Go Native, who is in line for a £1million bonus from betting exchange WBX, having won the Fighting Fifth Hurdle and Williamhill.com Christmas Hurdle. As it stands, Go Native is now only eight hurdles away from winning the biggest bonus in National Hunt racing so there will be a huge amount of interest in the race.

Solwhit will also have to contend with Binocular, Punjabi and Kyber Kim, all of whom could romp home on the day. Interestingly enough, Binocular has had some fitness concerns so may not be worth the 7/1 odds he has been given by Paddy Power Bookmakers and in saying that, Solwhit is still second favourite, to Go Native, on 11/2 which, again, may be reaching given that he hasn’t been 100% in the last week!

Champion Hurdle Runners and Odds

Cheltenham Races — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:25:14 +0000

Scheduled to be run on Tuesday 16th March 2010 at 3.20pm, the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle is one of the most prestigious hurdling events on the racing calendar. It is a Grade 1 National Hunt hurdle which is open to horses aged four years or older.

Run on the Old Course at Cheltenham, it covers 2 miles and 110 yards with eight hurdles to be jumped. The illustrious list of horses who have had triple wins at the Champion Hurdle include Hattons Grace, Sir Ken and Persian War but more recently Istabraq, whose successes came in 1998, 1999 and 2000.

An unprecedented fourth time eluded him however as the entire Cheltenham Festival was cancelled in 2001 due to the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease and though he returned for the 2002 race he failed to complete it and was retired soon thereafter.

Antepost odds with Paddy Power Bookmakers for the 2010 race are below…

3.20 Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle Challenge Trophy 2m 1/2f