Cheltenham Festival Betting 2012 / Cheltenham Free Bets

The Champion Hurdle is an class One race for four-year-olds and above across an length of 2m110y and comprises the feature race of the first day of the Festival on Tuesday, March 10th. raced along the Old Course, the horses have to pull off eight jumps in all with the involving ascending finish committing the stress securely on staying power.

The reigning champion Katchit has had a hard time this season, but whenever he can demonstrate that he still has the doggedness and appetite since hurdle race that he demonstrated when victorious twelve months agone, he has sure against put up a adequate battle against hold the hurdling crown. In acquiring it because a five-year-old, he broke loose the hypothesis that more immature hurdlers weren’t in addition to fitted out against coping with the calls for of the race as their more-experienced challengers.

The current ante-post favourite Binocular comprises another five-year-old from the herculean Nicky Henderson yard, whose See You Then began his glorious hat-trick of wins in the Champion Hurdle at the same age 23 years ago. A 5-4 chance with Sky Bet, Binocular is unbeaten in two starts this year and shot to the head of the market for the Champion Hurdle when posting the best trial seen so far this season at Ascot in December, comfortably defeating Celestial Halo with the likes of Katchit and Crack Away Jack simply unable to match his turn of foot.
It is easy to understand why the layers have taken such defensive action on the back of such an impressive performance but, if he does have a weakness, it could be stamina. He appeared to be outstayed in slower ground at the Cheltenham Festival last year when runner-up to Captain Cee Bee in the Supreme Novices’ and a similar test would probably give Celestial Halo et al their best hopes of reversing the form.

Brave Inca, who is another former Champion, rolled back the years in Ireland last time to make a successful return from last season’s injury woes to land the Irish Champion Hurdle. His chances of regaining the crown he last took three years ago are very much ground dependent, though, as he revelled in the testing conditions at Leopardstown, while Sublimity was left floundering in the mud.

The rain has come and that is a slight negative for the ante post favourite, Binocular, with some shrewd judges already expressing doubts as to whether the Cheltenham hill will be to his liking. Nicky Henderson’s 5 year-old was second in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle 12 months ago, but since has been unbeaten – winning at Aintree last season, then in impressive fashion in the Betfair Hurdle at Haydock, with the rearranged Boylesports International at Ascot his latest win. He’s already had plenty of his rivals today in behind, but still being only young and in the hustle and bustle of a Champion Hurdle he’s too short for me.
Paul Nicholls’ Celestial Halo has seen the back of the jolly twice already, once at Aintree at the backend of last season and first time out at Ascot. However, last year’s Triumph Hurdle winner has at least got winning form at the festival. He’s likely to be campaigned over further in the future and with the dig in the ground and the stiff finish things in his favour he’s respected.
My pick, however, is going to be Osana, from the in-form David Pipe team. He was second in the race last year, just losing out to Katchit, and although he’s been beaten by Celestial Halo this term that was his first outing, and I expect him to reverse that form with a 4lb pull. He’s also run well here in the past and is the only horse to have beaten Katchit at his beloved Cheltenham – when getting the better of the course specialist in the Boylesports in 2007. Andrew McNamara, who has been booked to ride my pick, was also on target for the yard at the weekend, another indication that the Pond House team are heading into the festival in tip-top order.
it really could be a case of how much rain we get in the run up to this race and if predictions of between 15-20mm are correct, and remember the track can typically miss plenty of rain, then we could get a scenario of soft, heavy in places. But for the benefit of this preview I won’t be as radical as that and will base it on soft ground.
Such conditions would undoubtedly rule out at least a third of the 24 strong field and in fact I would expect a handful of non runners before the tapes go up.
I have bracketed in that category Ashkazar, Blue Bajan, Crack Away Jack, Ebaziyan, Harchibald, Jered, Punjabi, Sentry Duty, Snap Tie and to a lesser extent Sublimity.
That’s an awful long list of horses to cross out purely because of the going, but because we have such a big entry this year, we are more likely than not to have a serious pace on with five confirmed front runners/pressers in the field, so if a horse is not at home on the prevailing surface they will be found out.
For that reason I strongly fancy Muirhead each-way. Second in the Irish Champion Hurdle, this lightly raced six-year-old is taken to reverse Brave Inca and may just have the edge over the likes Binocular, Osana, the forgotten horse that is Sizing Europe and Katchit.

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