The 2019 Unibet Champion Hurdle: Guide to the main contenders

The greatest hurdle race in the calendar, the Unibet Champion Hurdle takes the spotlight on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival and 27 entries are in the mix for the £450,000 prize on March 12.

Buveur D’Air seeks to join greats Hatton’s Grace, Sir Ken, Persian War, See You Then and Istabraq as a three-time winner of the race, but what of his chances and the competition?

Here’s a guide to the principal contenders.

Trainer: Nicky Henderson. General odds: 11-8

Buveur D’Air looked scintillating at the start of the season with seemingly one of his best performances, an eight-length demolition of Samcro in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle with last season’s Supreme Novice winner Summerville Boy further behind.

While that was impressive, the gloss of that victory has faded in recent weeks. Samcro then disappointed again before being diagnosed with a lung infection, while Summerville Boy was also well below-par next time and found to have a hairline fracture.

Buveur D’Air’s 11-race winning sequence came to an unexpected end in the Unibet Christmas Hurdle on Boxing Day when, having been sent off at 1-4, he was turned over by stablemate Verdana Blue.

No excuses were offered for that by connections and surely normal service will be resumed in a Festival trial next month, likely either the Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton or the Contenders Hurdle at Sandown.

Yet with Buveur D’Air not wholly convincing in the Champion Hurdle last year and now bidding to bounce back from a recent reverse, rivals are unlikely to be in short supply.

The eight-year-old sets the standard and remains the most likely winner, but the door is slightly more ajar than seemed likely earlier in the campaign.

Trainer: Willie Mullins. General odds: 7-2

Laurina bids to follow African Sister (1939), Dawn Run (1984), Flakey Dove (1994) and Annie Power (2016) as the fifth mare to be crowned champion hurdler.

Visually spectacular in the Trull House Stud Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle at the meeting last season, she is unbeaten for her current connections and has been winning by wide margins.

However, Laurina still has something to prove as her victory at Cheltenham last year was in arguably the weakest race of the Festival, plus she is short of experience having had only seven starts.

Also, she has raced exclusively against mares and her defeat of one rival at Sandown last time, while visually impressive, did not reveal whether she would be truly up to a Champion Hurdle assignment.

The biggest factor behind Laurina is stable confidence.

Willie Mullins nominated this race as her target early in the campaign and it seems she is above Melon and Sharjah, who boast superior form, in the pecking order. Laurina clearly has bundles of talent, but more is needed for what will be by far her biggest test.

Trainer: Willie Mullins. General odds: 9-1

Unlike the rest of these leading contenders, Melon has never won in Grade One company but the seven-year-old has decent Cheltenham Festival form as runner-up in a Supreme Novices’ Hurdle before a career-best second in last year’s Champion Hurdle.

Fourth on his return in the Ryanair Hurdle at Leopardstown, he made a bad mistake down the back and is entitled to come on for that. The likely championship pace in the big race at Cheltenham will also see him to better effect.

Trainer: Willie Mullins. General odds: 9-1

Only six, Sharjah raced 11 times in 2018 alone across both codes yet still seems to be improving. Having proven himself at the top level, he is not one to underestimate at Cheltenham in March.

A good novice, he had a Grade One prize at his mercy at the 2017 Leopardstown Christmas Festival but fell at the final flight when in command.

Winner of a Galway Hurdle that has worked out remarkably well, Sharjah has won Ireland’s premier two-mile hurdle events this season and, even with misgivings about the faltering competition – Faugheen flopping in the Morgiana and Samcro folding in the Ryanair Hurdle – he won both in style.

A fast horse who likes genuine good ground, will a strong pace in the Champion Hurdle potentially blunt his greatest asset?

On the evidence of his last two runs, he should probably be shorter in the betting.

Trainer: Nicky Henderson. General odds: 10-1

Nicky Henderson has a record seven victories in the Champion Hurdle, though to judge by his post-race comments after the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton he didn’t anticipate Verdana Blue being a live contender for win number eight.

The mare beat two-time champion Buveur D’Air by a short head at Kempton yet the long-standing plan was seemingly All-Weather Finals Day at Lingfield, a few weeks after the Cheltenham Festival.

Henderson has stated that she wants quick ground, which seems unlikely conditions for the first day of the Festival.

However, the owners have subsequently stated their intention to have a crack at the Cheltenham prize with an all-weather prep at Kempton next month on the agenda. She would likely be ridden by Nico de Boinville in the big race, a significant positive.

Trainer: Gordon Elliott. Generals odds: 10-1

The nine-time Grade One winner undoubtedly has the ability to make her presence felt in a Champion Hurdle.

However, Gordon Elliott and Gigginstown House Stud have opted to take the two-and-a-half-mile route of the OLBG Mares Hurdle with her for the past two seasons.

In a calendar in which Cheltenham is everything, the Mares’ Hurdle would be the much simpler assignment.

But with significant doubt around the participation of Samcro, who is in the same ownership, could she prove a star substitute?

Apple’s Jade would certainly add spice.

She was slightly disappointing last season and an odds-on flop at the Festival, but the seven-year-old has been in fantastic form this term, winning all three starts by a combined 57 lengths and the last twice in Grade One company.

Trainer: Jessica Harrington. General odds: 14-1

Stays further but has genuine championship form over two miles and is a Cheltenham Festival winner likely to appreciate a good pace to run at in the Champion Hurdle.

Well-fancied for the Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown at the start of the season but a late withdrawal on account of the quick ground, the nine-year-old ran an eye-catching race in the Ryanair Hurdle last time, being squeezed out at the second-last flight but running on nicely for second behind Sharjah.

He is second-favourite for the Sun Racing Stayers’ Hurdle, but stamina is no bad thing for a Champion Hurdle aspirant and despite the risk of potentially not lining up this one is still of interest among the current contenders at bigger prices.

Trainer: Gordon Elliott. General odds: 16-1

Brilliant novice and arguably the highest-profile horse in Irish racing, but things have not gone to plan since his win at the Cheltenham Festival last March.

In four subsequent starts in pen company, Samcro has failed to win despite starting a short-priced favourite on each occasion.

Not finishing his races this season, the seven-year-old was diagnosed with a “very, very deep” lung infection in early January. Gigginstown House Stud’s Eddie O’Leary added: “It’s unlikely he’ll run again this season and certainly Cheltenham is doubtful, but not out of the question.”

The fact that connections refuse to rule out the Champion Hurdle despite Samcro’s travails is telling and he travelled like the winner turning in at Leopardstown last time in the Ryanair Hurdle, taking the eye in a similar fashion to arguably his most mpressive victory in the Deloitte Novice Hurdle last season.

His preparation has not been good and whether his jumping is quick and slick enough for a Champion Hurdle is a question to be answered, but Gordon Elliott was always looking to the tests of Cheltenham bringing out the best in this horse even in the immediate aftermath of his heavy Fighting Fifth defeat.

There’s no question that he would be a runner of real intrigue. Unibet and Betfair offer 25-1 but that is the minimum price you would want at this stage.