Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle betting (March 11 2008)

Events / Editor / 20 October 2007 / Leave a Comment

The centrepiece of the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival and the most significant hurdles race of the whole season in terms of form and betting capacity, the Champion Hurdle is a race rich in history coveted by all National Hunt trainers and much loved by the betting public.

A Grade 1 contest run over two miles on the Old Course, the Champion Hurdle was first run in 1927. The list of winners reads like a 'Who's Who' of hurdling bringing back many memories of thrilling races, successful betting coups at long range ante-post odds and winning bets on the day at fancy odds.

For such a highly-competitive event, the race has proved fairly kind to the betting public over the years with household favourites coming back time and again to land the spoils at decent odds. Triple winners of the modern era include Persian War (1968-70), See You Then (1985-87) and the beloved Istabraq (1998 - 2000).

Even more horses have won the race twice and landed massive bets in the process, most recently Hardy Eustace (2004-5), whilst such was the manner of the success of Sublimity in 2007, a shock winner at odds of 16/1 who sunk many large bets on better fancied rivals, that many will be betting that John Carr's gelding will do the trick again, albeit at slightly less rewarding odds.

Irish-trained horses have won the last four Champion Hurdles and will probably be odds -on to land a nap-hand of victories, and plenty of bets with it, in March.