Champion Hurdle Betting Tips For The Cheltenham Festival
The Racing Post's Graeme Rodway has chosen his best choice for the Champion Hurdle, as well as a horse that could be a shrewd each-way alternative at a double-figure cost.
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Champion Hurdle Betting Tips
16:00 Cheltenham - The New Lion @ 5/2
16:00 Cheltenham - Poniros @ 12/1
16:00 Cheltenham - The New Lion @ 5/2
The has actually been on the agenda for The New Lion since he sauntered home to land the Challow Hurdle at Newbury in December 2024 and his time has finally shown up.
The Dan Skelton-trained seven-year-old went on to land the Turners Novices' Hurdle over 2m5f at this meeting in 2015, when he revealed a disastrous turn of foot to come from behind The Yellow Clay getting in the straight and win going away. That marked him down as a horse who has lots of speed.
The New Lion has been cared for ever since, running simply twice and both over 2m, a journey which looks certain to draw out the very best in him. However, not everything went right on his reappearance in the Fighting Fifth at Newcastle, when he fell at the second last and was beaten by last year's winner of this race, Golden Ace.
It was back to the drawing board for the Skelton team, but they developed The New Lion back up and he revealed no ill results from that fall when once again showing his hallmark turn of speed to land the International Hurdle on Trials day at this course. He originated from last-to-first in a slowly run race then.
He beat Nemean Lion by only a length and a half, however is value for a lot further than that winning margin evaluating by his ending up sectionals. He ran the second-from-last furlong that day in a time of 12.91 seconds, which is fast for a hurdler, and only won by a little margin due to the fact that of the sluggish rate.
A much more powerful gallop in a Champion Hurdle will highlight all sort of improvement from The New Lion and this is his day. It's likewise the Skeltons' day and they can land their first Champion Hurdle.
16:00 Cheltenham - Poniros @ 12/1
If there is a horse who might disturb the applecart at big odds then it's most likely last year's Triumph Hurdle winner Poniros, who has actually run only twice considering that and is open to the most enhancement of any runner in the field. He is the youngest horse in the race and this will be just his fourth hurdle start.
Poniros won last season's Triumph on his hurdling launching, which is quite an accomplishment, and it wasn't a weak race either. The runner-up Lulamba has actually because gone on to win multiple races over fences this season.
Lulamba got his revenge on Poniros at Punchestown, by my choice still ran a cracker to complete second and he returned from the very best part of a year off the track to complete 3rd behind Brighterdaysahead at Leopardstown last month. He had a quiet trip and didn't have a difficult race.
A lot more buttons will be pressed this time and Poniros has currently shown that he works in a highly run race around this course. He might take a huge advance following his run in the Irish Champion Hurdle and may easily encounter a place behind The New Lion, so is an each-way bet.
Tipster's Recent Winners
Graeme Rodway nailed 2 winners from 3 choices in his last column for bet365 readers and struck the layers with another double at Naas in the Racing Post on Wednesday.
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This article was composed by a partner sports writer through Spotlight Sports Group. All odds displayed on this page were appropriate at the time of writing and go through withdrawal or change at any time.