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| Let's Make a Rendezvous - Melodic Rendezvous is the value call in the Champion Hurdle |
The problem with that though is that there is very little value left in the market for a race that has been prominent in everyone’s thoughts since last year’s festival drew to a close.
There was a strong changing of the guard vibe around the champion hurdling division at the start of this season but reigning two-time champion Hurricane Fly has shown he is not going to hand over his crown without a fight by beating his two main challengers from his base in Ireland already this season.
The Fly has never really received the recognition he deserves in my opinion and people will undoubtedly still underestimate him until he is eventually packed off in to retirement.
Age is no longer on his side but he has proven again this season that he is still a force to be reckoned with even if he’s not quite been at his absolute brilliant best thus far.
His genius-like handler will surely have him peaking just in time for the festival and though people like to make the case that his best performances don’t come at Prestbury Park he has won two Champion Hurdles and been placed in another so he can clearly still bring his A-game at Cheltenham.
He’s favourite again this year and probably rightly so, there are a number of pretenders to the crown but he’s been there and done it more than once and has nothing left to prove.
He’ll almost certainly have to put up one of the performances of his career this weekend in the Irish Champion Hurdle if he’s to get much shorter in the betting though so for the purposes of this preview and finding a sliver of value we move on.
Next in the betting is The New One and of the young upstarts gunning for Hurricane Fly’s throne he strikes me as the most likely to topple the current king of the division.
He’s a strong stayer and I’d fancy him to get the better of almost anything in a battle up that gruelling Cheltenham hill over this distance. His Neptune win last season proves he is as effective over further so if stamina is called upon in addition to speed – which he also possesses – then it’ll take a tough horse to out battle him.
His hurdling isn’t always the slickest though and he seemed to just take a little bit of time to get in to gear when push came to shove against Zarkandar last month but he’s a very talented horse and I do think he probably would have beat My Tent Or Yours at Kempton had he not made a mess of the last flight and knocked his jockey out of his irons.
The Christmas Hurdle was a cracking race and really lived up to its billing. Many correctly predicted My Tent Or Yours would emerge victorious citing the track as a positive but in reality, as suggested above, had The New One jumped the last I think he’d have won and Kempton was supposed to be the day that My Tent would beat him if he was ever going to.
With that in mind I think The New One has My Tent’s number and I do worry about My Tent Or Yours in a battle up the hill, his best performances have come when cruising round pretty much all the way – Betfair Hurdle, Fighting Fifth but he’ll surely not get away with that at Cheltenham and I fancy there are a couple in here that can out-slog him on the run-in.
Irish pair Our Conor and Jezki are the other two big names set to do battle this year and though both probably have excuses following their defeat at the hands of Hurricane Fly recently they’ll both do well to reverse that form with the champ at Cheltenham in my opinion.
Our Conor is probably the better value and the more likely to get involved if you ask me, his runaway Triumph win last year proving he clearly acts at the course. He was probably in need of the run last time out and I’d expect an improved effort again next time he lines up.
Jezki was hampered by Our Conor last time but would still have done well to win even if he hadn’t met with that interference, a couple of these look to have him held on form to date and he’s not for me.
Willie Mullins has two other dark horses to potentially play understudy to The Fly – Annie Power is one but I suspect she will run in, and win, the World Hurdle instead and Un De Sceaux who could be anything.
We’ve learnt nothing about him really this season winning two small field races at long odds on by a distance but his free-going, trail-blazing style should ensure there is nowhere to hide and make things very interesting if nothing else.
I don’t really think he’s a betting prospect given how little we truly know of him but I you do like him then he surely offers some each way value.
That only leaves one other real contender for this year’s race and it just so happens to be the selection.
If I’d been smart I’d have grabbed some of the 50/1 NRNB that was available before the Champion Hurdle Trial on Saturday but given his lacklustre effort in the Fighting Fifth I needed to see him back to form before backing him for Cheltenham.
I am of course talking about Melodic Rendezvous, a horse that has a fantastic record yet is constantly underrated and unconsidered, hence why in spite of his Champion Hurdle price almost halving since Saturday I still think he’s the best value left in the race.
His only time out of the first two was in the Fighting Fifth when he pulled muscles and I can genuinely see him running in to a place here at a big price a la Countrywide Flame and Overturn in the last two renewals.
He stays further, has course form and though the majority of his wins have been on heavy ground he should handle whatever is thrown up and if we were to get a heavy ground race he will inevitably end up much shorter in the betting than he is now.
In an ideal world we’d be getting NRNB but predictably all the bookies offering that concession are much shorter than you can get with some of the others not yet going NRNB and when betting for a place you want as big a price as you can get. So I’ll take a risk on traditional ante-post rules and hope he gets there in one piece.
He has yet to beat any truly great horses and he may just ultimately lack the class of some of the leading protagonists here but he has some strong performances in the bag, has plenty of courage and would be a very popular success story were he to hit the board.
In a race that will surely be one for the ages Melodic Rendezvous looks the value pick in a sea of potential superstars and one already established legend.
Recommendation:
Melodic Rendezvous 0.5pt e/w @ 28/1 (888 Sport)
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