Champion Hurdle Betting Tips For The Cheltenham Festival

The Racing Post's Graeme Rodway has actually selected his best bet for the Champion Hurdle, as well as a horse that might be a shrewd each-way alternative at a double-figure cost.


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Champion Hurdle Betting Tips


16:00 Cheltenham - The New Lion @ 5/2
16:00 Cheltenham - Poniros @ 12/1


16:00 Cheltenham - The New Lion @ 5/2


The Champion Hurdle has actually been on the program for The New Lion since he roamed home to land the Challow Hurdle at Newbury in December 2024 and his time has actually lastly gotten here.


The Dan Skelton-trained seven-year-old went on to land the Turners Novices' Hurdle over 2m5f at this meeting last year, when he showed a devastating turn of foot to come from behind The Yellow Clay getting in the straight and win disappearing. That marked him down as a horse who has great deals of speed.


The New Lion has been taken care of because then, running just twice and both over 2m, a journey which looks particular to bring out the finest in him. However, not everything went right on his reappearance in the Fighting Fifth at Newcastle, when he fell at the second last and was beaten by last year's winner of this race, Golden Ace.


It was back to the drawing board for the Skelton group, but they developed The New Lion back up and he revealed no ill results from that fall when again showing his hallmark turn of speed to land the International Hurdle on Trials day at this course. He came from last-to-first in a gradually run race then.


He beat Nemean Lion by only a length and a half, but is worth for a lot further than that winning margin evaluating by his ending up sectionals. He ran the second-from-last furlong that day in a time of 12.91 seconds, which is fast for a hurdler, and only won by a small margin because of the sluggish pace.


A much stronger gallop in a Champ Hurdle will bring out all kinds of improvement from The New Lion and this is his day. It's likewise the Skeltons' day and they can land their very first Champion Hurdle.


16:00 Cheltenham - Poniros @ 12/1


If there is a horse who might distress the applecart at big odds then it's probably last year's Triumph Hurdle winner Poniros, who has actually run just twice given that and is open to the most enhancement of any runner in the field. He is the youngest horse in the race and this will be only his fourth difficulty start.


Poniros won last season's Triumph on his hurdling launching, which is quite a task, and it wasn't a weak race either. The runner-up Lulamba has since gone on to win several races over fences this season.


Lulamba got his revenge on Poniros at Punchestown, by my choice still ran a cracker to end up 2nd and he returned from the finest part of a year off the track to complete 3rd behind Brighterdaysahead at Leopardstown last month. He had a peaceful ride and didn't have a hard race.


A lot more buttons will be pressed this time and Poniros has actually already shown that he works in a highly run race around this course. He could take a massive advance following his run in the Irish Champion Hurdle and might easily run into a place behind The New Lion, so is an each-way bet.


Recent Winners


Graeme Rodway nailed 2 winners from 3 choices in his last column for bet365 readers and hit the layers with another double at Naas in the Racing Post on Wednesday.


View our Cheltenham Festival NAPs and Best options on website.


Take an appearance at the rest of our Cheltenham Day 1 tips.


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