Comment: Why mighty mare Apple's Jade should run in the Champion Hurdle

Apple’s Jade took just 3 minutes and 44 seconds to gallop her rivals silly in the BHP Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown on Saturday.

It should have taken her connections a fraction of that time to confirm she would next run in the English equivalent at the Cheltenham Festival next month but, instead, they teased us all with continued talk of instead heading for the Mares’ Hurdle on the same afternoon.

Eddie O’Leary was pulling our leg, wasn’t he? Or perhaps he was not being mischievous, merely showing a stubborn streak. In the immediate aftermath, talking to Nick Luck, he seemed adamant that the Mares’ Hurdle remained the objective.

Quite what Gigginstown’s fascination is with that race is hard to fathom, not least when their mighty mare has already won one edition of it and been beaten in another, last year, when in season.

The 2m4f contest is a worthy recent addition to the biggest meeting of the year but when all is said and done it’s a Grade Two event that, in terms of prestige, is not on anything like the same plane as the Champion Hurdle.

Neither is the prize-money, with the Champion Hurdle worth £200,000 more to the winner.

Didn’t Michael O’Leary switch Apple’s Jade to the yard of Gordon Elliott from Willie Mullins because of a dispute over increased training fees? An extra £200,000 helps pays for a lot of equine lodgings.

Apple’s Jade might not win the Champion Hurdle, but that’s not the point.

She is at the peak of her powers – a much better model than in the past - and has shown herself to be a legitimate contender. Four races this campaign, three of them at the highest level, have yielded four wins by an aggregate of 73 lengths.

Nothing has got close to giving her a race. She's generally 2-1 “with a run” for the Champion, which reflects what the layers think of her prospects.

Racing TV held a snap poll on Twitter, asking which race she should run in at the Festival.

We quickly got 542 responses, with 76 per cent voting for the Champion Hurdle; 21 per cent favouring the Mares Hurdle and 3 per cent plumping for the Stayers’ Hurdle.

Those 16 or 17 who suggested the third option either (a) have backed her ante-post for that particular race or (b) pressed the wrong button.

Not running her in the Champion Hurdle would be something of a betrayal to the sport and rob us all of potentially the race of the meeting.

The prospect of the habitually held-up Buveur D’Air trying to claw her back and win a third Champion Hurdle would be worth going a long way to see. Will she be able to drag him out of his comfort zone, or will he breeze past her?

Throw the “could be anything” Laurina into the mix and, all of a sudden, we would have a two-mile championship race worthy of its name.

It was only in October that Elliott said: "I’ve never had a Champion Hurdle horse before and Gigginstown have yet to win it and we thought it was worth giving Samcro a shot at that race.”

Since then, of course, the wheels have come off for Samcro but Elliott does have a Champion Hurdle horse and Gigginstown do have a live contender.

Her name is Apple’s Jade and the sooner that, as a collective, her connections commit to running in the big one the better.

Who knows, such a declaration may even make Willie Mullins have a rethink over which race to run Laurina in. Could she be redirected to the Mares’ Hurdle? That’s a different story for a different day.