Champion Hurdle 2016 - Festival Focus

Nic a Place - Nichols Canyon looks good value to chase home Faugheen in the Champion Hurdle.

With Faugheen’s utter dominance of the Champion Hurdle market there isn’t really an angle in to the race other than trying to find the horses that are going to fill the places in behind him.

The reigning champ looks so far clear of the remainder of the likely field that it almost seems pointless running the race at this point. This is horse racing, and more specifically Cheltenham, though and anything can, and often will, happen.

The only real play I can see in the Champion Hurdle as things stand therefore is to back the horse that spectacularly beat Faugheen at the beginning of the campaign Nichols Canyon, because following his comprehensive defeat to the horse dubbed ‘the machine’ last time out he has drifted out to pretty fair price to pick up the minor honours behind his stable mate.

Many heralded his victory over Faugheen as a fluke and subsequent events have probably proven that to be true, but there’s no denying he’s a top class performer in his own right – his string of Grade 1 wins are testament to that.

Festival Focus - Champion Hurdle 2015

C-Irv Ball - Irving is my speculative outside bet to sneak a place in Tuesday's feature.

This year’s Champion Hurdle and Arkle currently leave me in somewhat of a quandary, because having backed the two now short-priced favourites for both races a while back and got something actually resembling a decent(ish) price I want to tip both for each respective race but I can’t bring myself to tip even money and odds on shots in Cheltenham festival races.

I truly believe that Faugheen and Un De Sceaux will both win on the opening day and in the process create yet another ‘Ruby Tuesday’ but with their prices both long gone the task now is finding some semblance of value left in both races so as not to come across like one of the many ‘boom merchants’ you find on Twitter these days celebrating ‘tipping’ a horse that is odds on.

The obvious value call in the Champion Hurdle is Jezki each-way at 6/1 as the big three look like being tough to keep out of the places. It seems lazy to simply go for that easy option though even if a seemingly easy return is usually desperately needed during Cheltenham week!

Beaten three times by Hurricane Fly this season Jezki was even beaten for second by Arctic Fire last time out, throwing an element of doubt on the big three will be the 1-2-3 argument mentioned above.

He did make a pretty serious blunder at the last flight that day though and his season has charted a similar course to last year when he of course claimed glory in this race.

I do think he’ll be seen to better effect at the festival, but I’m greedy and an eternal optimist so I’m going to look for a horse at a bigger price that could capitalise should one of the big three not fire and miss the frame.

Neptune Preview - Festival Focus

Elementary - Red Sherlock is fancied to land the Neptune

The Neptune has produced some great winners over the years – Istabraq, Hardy Eustace and in recent years First Lieutenant, Peddlers Cross, Simonsig and The New One.

This year’s race looks set to unearth yet another superstar as a talented list of entries remain in the novice contest but with a hot ante-post favourite from Willie Mullins, the horse that appeals to me as the most likely winner still sits at a decent price in spite of his recent contraction.

My original ante-post pick Clondaw Court is not dead in the water yet and I do hope he runs here but with the favourite Faugheen in the same ownership it looks unlikely, and if a Cheltenham run is in Clondaw Court’s future it is more than likely going to be in the Albert Bartlett.

Therefore the unbeaten Red Sherlock is now my selection for the race as things stand, his recent battling win at Cheltenham in which he and Rathvinden (not far off being one of Mullins’ best novice hurdlers) pulled well clear of a decent field cementing that sentiment.