espoir d ,allen

not a hope in hells chance.

cheers tree thanks for the heads up
i will increase my bet forthwith !

just taken 25 with c0ral,interesting outsider imo

good luck budd .

did you like my reasoning?

seriously though im laying this one

so you understand its chances there is more chance of me winning the premiership darts,

Jumping the way this horse does is fine for those egg n spoon races but losing a length at each hurdle it won't know which way they've gone by halfway tomorrow.

cheers foyles, you too mate

ahem !

slick jumper, always had a great chance imo!

well done tree i know ya backed it ya little tinker !

Great shout .Well done .Foyles/Budd.

thanks geoff !

OP
hope your festival's paid for.
   vwd
   GL

and some!  thanks penzance ,once in a while it falls into place .

Well done 'Foyle and budd'!

WD, a winners a winner, but a p1ss poor Champ Hdl you must admit?

Cheers lads....gutted to see BD fall but great performance from ED,superb.

well done budd ,nice to start the festival on the front foot ! good luck for the rest of it .

Thanks Foyles,well done and good luck for you too mate

hope Callisto didnt go in 2 heavy on the lay.?

townend and mullins did a great job keeping apples company and  preventing her an easy lead softended her up before 2 out .thought it would be sharjah doing that .

by callistos comments i think he probably backed the winner or at least layed the front 2  ,think i can read him in some of his posts !

WP Foyles / Budd ......That should set you up for the week

Well i had a few losing bets as well noc, but it certainly helps,got a tad lucky with Roksana as well.
We all need a bit of luck at Cheltenham!!.

Not that i thought ED was a lucky win,he was very impressive,and i think would have beaten BD,although of course we will never know for sure.

cheers noc ,yeah it helps ! good luck

absolutely spot on call here foyles I hope you have had a few £££ away from the bookies.

thanks tree, yes won a nice few quid ,hope you did as well good luck !

Only just come across this thread now, good shout Foyles.

It was a poor Champion Hurdle, but can't be impressed about how effortless it was for Espoir (to be fair, he beat Melon, who is 165, and Silver Streak who is 156 by 15 lengths, so is easily a 170 performance).  The run of Wicklow Brave in the Coral Cup shows he's a good one - Espoir walked all over him giving him a chunk of weight and then Wicklow gets chinned on the line in the Coral Cup off top weight.

I think he'll be really tough to beat next year, and Beveur has some serious questions to answer at Aintree now after his Christmas Hurdle and a fall out of three races.  If Pentland Hills and Band of Outlaws both turn up at Aintree on Thursday, that's a mouth watering contest and if one of them wins well they could easily halve in price for the Champion.


Maybe something will come out of the woodwork next year (hands up who though Espoir D'Allen would win at this point last year?), but I honestly cannot see past him, being a year stronger and not too much looking like it will come through.  From what I can see, he has just won the Champion Hurdle by the biggest margin in Champion Hurdle history - that surely deserves more recognition than it has actually got??

* but can't help be impressed about how effortless it was

cheers wellchief good to see ya back , think the winner will be underated by the media and many punters ,  the general consensus will be the front 3 underperformed for one reason or another beuvair has valid excuses and the winners price means he may well be overlooked . before the race it looked a strong renewal and as you say the winner won by a record distance . who knows how good this one can be ? put it this way if any one of apples jade ,beuvair dair or laurina did what he did it would be described as a sensational   performance . around 11/2 and reportedly wont bee seen till next  season i dont think he will shorten much  so not a bet yet  . a bit early but  anyway one that interests me  is band of outlaws, on the up, course form and a price i have had a dabble at around those prices has potential and a lot to like atm.imo.

those prices i e around 20- 25s ish on here ^^

been said before   but if you can ignore the  hype and take a balanced view then you can use the "hype" to your advantage . i decided to ignore those chelt preview panels this year as the "info " is conflicting and very often misleading and i will be doing the same next year .

Did not see one preview this year,got steadily fed up with them over last few years.
Like you Foyles I will stick with that now.

As for the Champion Hurdle, I have a feeling we could have a future multiple winner on our hands as hes a young horse and probably room for further improvement. Yes the race fell apart with the main threats, but it was still impressive what he did.
Having said that I would not write BD off just yet, although Chief is right when he says he has questions to answer.
I think Thursday we will see an impressive victory as I think its his ideal distance. Hope so anyway.

ED will have to do it again for me .

I enjoy watching the previews myself, not as a winner searching exercise, most of my betting is I/R so I'm deciding from when the race starts really, but the previews just serve as for the most part a light hearted a part of the build up that gets you excited for the real thing, it's like getting the tree out for xmas or buying the prezzies.

I agree Duffy, I think ED will need to back up his Champion Hurdle because we sometimes get carried away with these 'too good to be true' performances, but for me, I see no reason why he couldn't repeat it.  If it was a novice hurdle I would be very dubious, because we often see wide margin winners in those, but not in Champion Hurdles.

I love the way he was given a really low key prep by his trainer, building him up towards the Champion without putting the gun to his head too soon, being only a five year old.  I do get the impression though that if he'd been wearing those silks with NJ Henderson or a certain pink and green silks with WP Mullins next to his name, he'd lauded as the second coming.

For the Aintree Hurdle its got to be Faugheen all day to me, who is a knocking bet at 7/1.  Didn't quite get home in the Stayers but travelled with some of the old zest, so I think 2m4f for him is perfect now.  Plus, he has always trained on well into Punchestown - I know Aintree is a bit sooner than usual but he has won at Punchy every year after the Festival, and Willie rarely brings them to Aintree, so he must think he has a great chance.

I respect Beveur D'Air immensely, I do think 2m4f is right up his street, but after a loss at Kempton, a racecourse gallop at 1/5 and then a fall, I cannot have him evens/odds on in a hot contest.

had 10 races total and not hard to expect improvement next season . can see a similar campaign to this season ,been sticking a few  spare tenners and fivers on him  for next seasons champ hurdle at around 5.7 ish and will continue to as barring  hendos pentland there dont look to be a lot coming through .

difficult to knock the horse,unless every horse ran poor in this years champion hurdle it was a top performance and if he was trained by hendo,nicholls,mullins or elliot that 5 would probally be a 3

What's the news on the horse not in betting now.

.....heard being lined up for galway hurdle, more prizemoney than champion hurdle and better class

Sad to read horse is injured and unlikely to run in upcoming season. A great shame.

Just announced on rte a freak accident last week when horse was spooked unlikely to race this season.

Unfortunately didn't survive

RIP

So awful and sad for connections, and so sad for us Cheltenham lovers....absolutely gutted.
He was so impressive when winning the CH at 5 years old, and really could have gone on to be anything....possibly one of the best ever.
Sadly we will never know.

RIP.

Very sad indeed. He didn't really get the credit on the day with others falling or running below form. Another example of how hard it is to follow up in the Championship races.