Champion Hurdle Betting – A Fly in the Ointment?

Our guest blogger Joel Neasham concludes his article on the Champion Hurdle and comes to the conclusion that there’s definitely ‘a fly in the ointment’ !

The next horse to have a look at in the Champion Hurdle is Peddler’s Cross who was the first horse I started banging on about to win the race.

I know people always talk about Binocular never being in top form early doors in the season but nevertheless Peddlers Cross looked the part in my book when turning Binocular over in the Christmas Hurdle. I would feel a lot more confident if he put another convincing performance in before the Champion Hurdle takes place. Now to the horse mentioned above that Peddler’s defeated the reigning ‘Champ’, Binocular.

I’m going to stick my neck out and make Binocular the first horse I rule out. Admittedly I can’t rule this horse out with any real confidence but I need to whittle them down somehow and my argument is in the two races it has won since Peddlers beat him, he hasn’t looked convincing and hasn’t really beat much. For example, last time out he beat Ruthenoise by 1 ¼ (although I admit it could have been more), but Ruthenoise has since went and been turned over in a pit ponies race. Just doesn’t do the form any favours, so now that I’ve ruled it out, get it backed because it will absolutely hack up.

The next horse to look at is the outsider of the five is Oscar Whisky. I really do think this is a great each way shout at 14/1. He hasn’t been beating great horses but what he has done is beat them very comfortably and convincingly indeed and looks to have a couple more gears left to go through.

Now to my current favourite and the horse I’m going to stick with (for now) – Hurricane Fly. I genuinely believe that Willie Mullins is a genius and this horse just keeps getting better and better. He has won 9 out of his last 11 races only being defeated by Solwhit (who he has beaten 4 times since and each time is a larger distance than the last) and a horse called Grivette, but that was almost 3 years ago and long forgotten about.

The fact it is beating a good horse like Solwhit time after time says a lot. The only concern is can it make it around Cheltenham? But that’s a risk I’m more than willing to take, so get your blue scarf on and cheer in ‘The Fly’ come March 15th at 3:20PM.

If you were to ask me again in 3 weeks time I’d probably tell you that Binocular is a shoe in and that Hurricane Fly hasn’t got a cat in hells chance, but either way, what a horse race this should turn out to be and I for one cannot wait!