2014 Champion Hurdle

[winstys_army]

i think its between the hurricane and our conor, the 2 british horses to fight it out for 3rd place.

My friend big dee has a massive head

[mayo]

i think its between the hurricane and our conor, the 2 british horses to fight it out for 3rd place.

My friend big dee has a massive head

Welcome Winsty

Who is Big D ?

[winstys_army]

its my mate you should see the size of his head!!! Id say Our Conor will be even money to be placed that has to be bet of the festival!

[Old Vic]

For donka

Twiston-Davies: The New One did last piece of serious work yesterday.

[donka]

For donka

Twiston-Davies: The New One did last piece of serious work yesterday.

Nice one OV, I'll check it out.

[theporge]

IMO you can do all the work you want, but my abiding memory is of The New One putting down when STD asked him for a long one at the final hurdle over Christmas which ultimately cost him the race against My Tent most people would say. Just have this thing about horses putting down when in the throws of battle, still fancy Hurricane to beat Our Conor with Jezki in third.

[donka]

IMO it just goes to show what a great race this is,We all have different fancies.But i'm not having Jezki finishing in front of TNO or MTOY,Jezki doesn't even like cheltenham IMHO.

Consider this-NTD has never trained a CH winner and he's up against likes of Henderson,Hughes and Mullins who have trained multiple winners of the race,and yet TNO's clear fav with some (5/2 with ladbrokes).You can say that's bad value or you can say the layers aren't stupid and they're fully aware of the confidence behind him.I do agree that OC is the main danger though.

[Old Vic]

IMO you can do all the work you want, but my abiding memory is of The New One putting down when STD asked him for a long one at the final hurdle over Christmas which ultimately cost him the race against My Tent most people would say. Just have this thing about horses putting down when in the throws of battle, still fancy Hurricane to beat Our Conor with Jezki in third.

The Couch agrees with you the porge

from preview night thread

CHAMPION HURDLE:

Couch can't have The New One, or 'The Can't Jump One' MY Tent or Yours is the one. Easily best. Reminds him of Binocular
Davy: After New One won the Neptune I thought he was a class act. Our Conor is an exceptional jumper and that is key.Hurricane is unbeatable in Ireland. Not the same in UK. between New One and Our Conor.
PP's Rob won't hear of defeat for the Hurricane
BF: The New One
Lynch: The New One will give Hurricane Fly biggest problem. Ruby will prob follow The New One and win.Our Conor could be next year's Champion Hurdle winner, but this time it's Hurricane Fly
Andy Mac: went ridiculous slow pace in Irish Champion, you can't give Hurricane Fly a sprint finish.

[Old Vic]

IMO it just goes to show what a great race this is,We all have different fancies.But i'm not having Jezki finishing in front of TNO or MTOY,Jezki doesn't even like cheltenham IMHO.

Consider this-NTD has never trained a CH winner and he's up against likes of Henderson,Hughes and Mullins who have trained multiple winners of the race,and yet TNO's clear fav with some (5/2 with ladbrokes).You can say that's bad value or you can say the layers aren't stupid and they're fully aware of the confidence behind him.I do agree that OC is the main danger though.

Jezki backers need to believe that he improves about 7lbs for Geraghty over McCoy ...for all that Barry is 4/4 on him and I do believe in jockeys being the key to certain horses that is a big leap of faith.

[skippymac6]

Yep I fully agree with you Vic. If Geraghty was on Jezki in the Supreme last year the result could have been very different. I'm not saying he would have won as Champagne Fever was in determined mood, but he would have been at lot closer anyway.

[Old Vic]

<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/86982389" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/86982389">champion hurdle</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user25063335">Paddy Power Blog</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

[Hoof]

"Our Conor is fabulous at the moment," Hughes told The Telegraph.

"I wish the race were next week, he's so well.

"The thing about our horse is that he excels at Cheltenham.

"His win in the Triumph was exceptionally good and we are hoping he can repeat that performance again this year.

"Hopefully, he is in the same frame of mind."

[Yeehaa]

One of his mounts sure to attract plenty of betting cash on the opening day of the Festival, particularly from patriotic British punters keen to oppose Ireland’s brilliant Hurricane Fly, is The New One. A classy six-year-old whose liking for Cheltenham was evidenced when winning last year’s Neptune Novices’ Hurdle at the Festival, he nevertheless fluffed his lines on Boxing Day at Kempton.

“Where I went wrong was riding to beat one horse,” says Twiston-Davies. “If I’d just ridden to ride in the race it might have been alright. I rode to beat My Tent Or Yours and I ended up throwing him at the last in desperation and he ended up putting down so it’s one of those where we didn’t get away with at the time but hopefully it will be a bit different come Cheltenham.”

Even a win on the horse 12 days earlier at Cheltenham over Nicholls’ useful Zarkandar had not been without its hairy moments: “Everything is always very easy for him. No matter what kind of speed they’re going at he’s always travelling within himself and it just so happened everything that day ended up struggling from a long way out and he just carried me to the front and then obviously got a bit lazy, jumped the last slow and it gave Zarkandar a chance to come back. But he has loads of gears and showed what a good turn of foot he has that day. And although things didn’t work out to plan he still managed to get away with it and showed a bit of class. After Kempton, we got beaten, we were disappointed and upset, but Cheltenham does seem to suit him very well.”

[Yeehaa]

“He was too free the first year. I sat too far back on him the second year, he wasn’t 100% and last year I shouldn’t have followed the ones in front,” Walsh recalled. “They were going too fast and I followed them. I shouldn’t have. Racing is about pace, about judgment. I knew they were going too fast. I should have backed my own judgment and stayed where I was but instead I was thinking of all the criticism I got the year before and I kept following them. That was the mistake I made and the horse got me out of it. It won’t happen again.

“If I hadn’t followed the pace last year I’d have arrived turning in hard on the bridle and he’d have blown everybody away. But he still managed to win. I don’t think I’ve done things right on him at Cheltenham. The day I’ll get it right, he’ll show England what he’s shown Ireland.”

[Old Vic]

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