Cheltenham Festival
There is currently 1 person viewing this thread.
These 118 comments are related to the topic:
champion hurdle 2026
champion hurdle 2026
sort by:
Show
per page
Replies: 118
|
By:
Poniros? The horse came from nowhere to pip Lulamba on the line. Good luck!
|
|
By:
That was his first ever run over hurdles impossible. Lulamba is no slouch. On the negative side is his age which is still a 5lb penalty imo and his inexperience but the market tells us that the Mullins camp fancy him and he is likely to be their main candidate. It is looking a weaker contest every day and will depend on which of the mares turn up. I still think that Golden Ace will win unless the Brighterdaysahead we saw at Leopardstown is the one that runs at Cheltenham.
|
|
By:
It would be wrong to say Lulamba is a slouch but finishing close to him isn’t Champion Hurdle form. Not that there’s much of that about. I suppose Golden Ace can’t be overlooked as a previous winner but let’s call a spade a spade. It was a rubbish winner though the celebration in the paddock was brilliant.
|
|
By:
I watched last year's race again yesterday - I'd forgotten how utterly bonkers it was.
|
|
By:
If all line up I'll quit betting if Golden ace is in the 1st 3
|
|
By:
Would Lulamba have a decent chance here too? The injury to Sir Gino was pretty late in the season otherwise Lulamba could have deputised given the owner had no silver bullet for this race.
I think Lulamba would be vying for fav in the market. I just cannot see The New Lion win. He's not a top-notch 2-miler. Also, he's a tendency to edge right when under-pressure at the business end. He's also fallen (once) as a result. |
|
By:
Never thought I'd say it but Lossiemouth would be my pick if she ran as I have been generally against her through the years, she wants further but so do others in the field, I'm a big BDA fan but she doesn't like Cheltenham, she can't get into that relentless grinding rhythm on that track like she can at Leopardstown whereas Lossie is infinitely better at Cheltenham, the big thing this year with her is that Mullins does not have a live viable horse for the race and also CH not running helps too so she has her best chance of running.
At the prices I don't like any of the others. |
|
By:
I agree. The main thing with her is, after the defection of CH, she also has the Mares Hurdle as her target. And, knowing her connections esp her trainer Mr Mullins (Ricci is only a puppet) she'll run in a race where she's the best chance of winning ie Mares Hurdle given the extra and optimum yardage.
|
|
By:
There seems to be a lot of ideas about what can't win so but why shouldn't Golden Ace? She is a long way behind Constitution Hill and State Man but they are not running! She had The New Lion on toast when he fell at Newcastle and quite a few thought she might have run very close to State Man last year even if he had stood up. Lossiemouth and Brighterdaysahead are the main dangers on paper with Poniros still the one I fear because he is still totally unexposed. i don't think that Alexei or Tutti Quanti are good enough.
|
|
By:
The RPR ratings are as follows.
Hurdles over less than 2 miles 2 furlongs. Brighterdaysahead 173 Lossiemouth 171 Golden Ace 165 The New Lion 163 Poniros 160 If all of those run, Lossiemouth looks the most likely as she has a better Cheltenham record that brighterdaysahead. But is Lossiemouth going to run? Golden Ace has beaten Brighterdaysahead twice at Cheltenham, once in the mares novice getting 5lb and last year in the CH. The only horses that have beaten her over 2 miles are Sir Gino, State Man and in that strange 2 horse race, Kateira. None of those run on March 10. |
|
By:
sageform • February 28, 2026 6:02 PM GMT
There seems to be a lot of ideas about what can't win so but why shouldn't Golden Ace? She is a long way behind Constitution Hill and State Man but they are not running! She had The New Lion on toast when he fell at Newcastle and quite a few thought she might have run very close to State Man last year even if he had stood up She’d had the benefit of a run going into the Fighting 5th, I recall Skelts saying that he’d left plenty of to work with on with the New Lion so it may be dangerous to take that race on face value. To add to that point the jock said yesterday on the OS to at the end that the horses weren’t as far forwards this year to start with. I think that they’re licking their lips at the chance to show the horse at his best here as they have a better record with hurdlers at the festival than jumpers. Only negative was the race that it took in last time on the other course, doesn’t have a good record for winners. I don’t see that Golden would have beaten Stateman or got close, he was tanking with Townsend having a double handful. |
|
By:
State Man would walk away with this race had he not been injured. Unless a 1st-time runner wins this renewal is one of the worst, if not the worst, renewal ever.
|
|
By:
vgtewer
|
|
By:
It’s always the worst race ever
|
|
By:
The unbeatable went off 13/8 for last years and the main danger was a 9/1 poke!
 |
|
By:
Lossiemouth confirmed for Champion Hurdle
|
|
By:
This renewal is the worst ever eg no Constitution Hill or State Man. Either will eat these lot and spit them out without the slightest discomfort one bit. Nevertheless, I do not think Lossiemouth will win. Her connections have made the correct decision, but I think the horse has regressed.
|
|
By:
Have to agree. Will probably back BDA now for the price, which we wont know until the Decs have been announced later today
|
|
By:
Are you confident she’ll place? Horses for courses comes to mind and she falls flat on that whereas others don’t.
|
|
By:
Horses for course's is Lossiemouth 4 from 4 2 old 2 new
|
|
By:
From from 4 Ben correct but I was posing the question re: Brighter Days Ahead for Andy.
|
|
By:
Lossie will go off fav no?
|
|
By:
Very true, but as I said I was going by price. I never fancied TNL and think that Lossie is on the decline. If BDA runs like she did at Leopardstown, she is in with a good a shout as any of them.
|
|
By:
Fair enough Andy, there seems to be a lot of people against the Skelt runner, surely won’t be fav as over 90% of opinion seems against him.
I think we might see him bolt up in a proper ran race, this is a big thing for the the trainer to be given a JP horse and I believe that he’s left plenty to work on and we might see something special! Well here’s hoping And it’s not that I’ve backed to win big, but there’s a lot of negativity around the division with the likes of CH, Sir Gino and Stateman not running. Lest we forget the latter was a 9/1 unfancied chance last year so there’s room for one to really show us something. |
|
By:
Well with JP turning 75 on Tuesday, all his horses will be trying
|
|
By:
 |
|
By:
And the Skelts
 |
|
By:
|
|
By:
I don't think she's regressed just back to the place she loves
|
|
By:
Yeah I was very wrong too
|
|
By:
The class horse won, Mullins clearly doesn’t have them at their pitch for the DRF, I’d read that it may leave its mark on the runners there. It’s just used as a run out.
|
|
By:
I was unable to watch yesterday, the first time in years that I’ve not heard the roar
 Wasn’t impressed with the ride by Skelts, going wide and giving a lead off a sedate pace, Ruby said she’d win in a sprint and that pretty much unfolded. Conversely he rode on the inside on Madara at least for the first circuit, that sort of this from jocks winds me up! He looked after TNL and all the talk of putting him into the hurdles was just that, the horse wasn’t ridden to match the talk and on watching back he doesn’t jump quick enough, lands like a dropped cat. I’d hoped for something special that wasn’t there, but feared the entry of Lossie and wasn’t surprised that she was fav. |
|
By:
BDA is just unable to go quick enough and get into that rhythm at Cheltenham that she can at the flatter Leopardstown that gets Lossiemouth at it earlier in the race,consequently, although she is a 20f horse herself ideally, she is undoubtedly the quickest of the 20f horses in a sprint over 2 miles which is how it panned out and she did the race credit.
|
|
By:
She did and I didn’t see her hitting the board, thought the winner and Lion were booked for two places, with Golden Ace and (before the addition of Lossie) the Blume runner fighting for 3rd.
She was well beaten and I didn’t think that her run proves that Cheltenham isn’t her track, as you say she’s better on a flatter track. Going up hill and down dale ain’t for her. Had Skelton of ridden better he’d of been second, covering ground tells. |
|
By:
I’m glad too that there was no talk of , “what if Constitution had ran” having beaten Lossie last year, her record is second to none and he looked a slight shadow of himself in bearing her when he did to me, which is why I backed against him last year.
|
|
By:
I read on a horsey paper it was the best CH since Constitution Hill. What a prat!
|
|
By:
 On ratings? |
|
By:
I fell asleep when this came on.
|
|
By:
Too much sun?
|