2025 Champion Hurdle

[TigerRolllllll]

What RPR do we think BDA will get ?

Surely one of highest for a Mare?

Hard race to rate

[Brooksie]

Got Apples Jade Irish Champion hurdle massacre vibes all over it.

We just need Gavin Cromwell to send a 5 year old to the CH now and the stage is set.

[Lobos]

I’m not sure the form needs to be worth anything. The only thing that matters imo is the winners performance, the rest is an irrelevance for me. Imo very few horses in training could have lived with her today. My concern would be if she has pushed herself too hard but time will tell on that .

Agree. Forget any bets we've had or not had, that performance will sit in my memory bank for a long time. Utterly amazing.

[Quevega]

What RPR do we think BDA will get ?

Surely one of highest for a Mare?

Hard race to rate

The time was the fastest for the race.
But they can't judge it on the other runners because they were allowed to get away at least 10-15 lengths or so.
With regards the time However, Leopardstown fuck around with the rails all the time, which is why the Irish Champion is kind of on a different course also.

[Rooster Booster]

Agree. Forget any bets we've had or not had, that performance will sit in my memory bank for a long time. Utterly amazing.

Absolutely we should be celebrating performances like this one . I nearly choked on my gnocchi shouting at the telly. The first half I was shouting at the jockeys to slow down and the second half shouting we are seeing something special this is fucking crazy

[Lobos]

Absolutely we should be celebrating performances like this one . I nearly choked on my gnocchi shouting at the telly. The first half I was shouting at the jockeys to slow down and the second half shouting we are seeing something special this is fucking crazy

Yep, me same in Betfred before bookies after several pints. You can imagine what I was like in there !!

Will watch it again and again later.

That race, Galopin , Gino and Lion race were just unbelievable.

Just love horse racing

[Rooster Booster]

Yep, me same in Betfred before bookies after several pints. You can imagine what I was like in there !!

Will watch it again and again later.

That race, Galopin , Gino and Lion race were just unbelievable.

Just love horse racing

Yep it’s been some week.

[Exar Essay]

I’m convinced she’ll got to the Champion Hurdle. Why else run her like that today? They’ve chosen to run her a certain way and she has excelled. It would seem strange to now try and settle her in over 2m4f again.

I think that’s a 165+ performance. And that could be enough at Cheltenham.

[Lobos]

I’m convinced she’ll got to the Champion Hurdle. Why else run her like that today? They’ve chosen to run her a certain way and she has excelled. It would seem strange to now try and settle her in over 2m4f again.

I think that’s a 165+ performance. And that could be enough at Cheltenham.

The second they stuck KOK in there it was clear what they were going to do. Plan worked a treat.

[Brooksie]

I’m convinced she’ll got to the Champion Hurdle. Why else run her like that today? They’ve chosen to run her a certain way and she has excelled. It would seem strange to now try and settle her in over 2m4f again.

I think that’s a 165+ performance. And that could be enough at Cheltenham.

Yep exactly, forget what they say, watch what they do.

[YoungHustler]

State Man has never been out the top 2, when finishing, so getting beaten by Winter Fog places a serious doubt to his wellbeing today which means it's hard to gauge how great that performance by Brighterdaysahead was today imo. There has to be something amiss with the Mullins stable as Argento Boys run was also too bad to be true earlier.

I'm not saying that State Man being at his best would have beaten Brighterdaysahead today but I'm saying is that we just don't know because there was clearly something wrong with him today. He's always been a horse that has been underappreciated and there's no way Winter Fog gets anywhere near him on a normal day. Brighterdaysahead may well have improved again but her silly time today was only 4.8 seconds faster than average which was slower than July Flower's 5.1 seconds faster than average for her race. I'm no timing expert but that just says to me today's ground was very fast so would have favoured front runners getting an easy lead. I think Townend thought he would have easily picked up Brighterdaysahead but State Man just wasn't right. Townend wasn't sleeping as he's one of the best around.

I would love to see O'Leary being sporting and let Brighterdaysahead go for the CH as I don't think the race is clear cut. I didn't like the way ConHill had to be vigorously ridden and whipped, Lossiemouth and State Man ran flat and Brighterdaysahead looks to still be improving.

[That Horse]

I nearly choked on my gnocchi

By Jove, do be more careful old bean

[Birds Nest]

Michael o'leary today.....I'd go for the Mares' Hurdle, but we'll have a chat about it closer to Cheltenham, but ultimately Gordon and Eddie will probably decide and I'll be overruled! Let's enjoy today."

[Odddog]

Evening all, new poster here popped across from Not606 - I started a Champion Hurdle 2025 thread over there but it hasn't generated the amount of debate that I see here so I hope you don't mind me adding to what is an excellent thread.

I have to agree it has been a wonderful week of racing and I think my Champion Hurdle takeaways would be these:

Constitution Hill - great to see him back on the track and in the winners enclosure. He will come on a ton for that and for those who want to crab him for Burdett Road finishing so close - is Burdett Road any worse than the horses State Man and Lossiemouth have been beating the last 2 years? I grabbed a bit of 9/2 CH for the Champion Hurdle after he was scratched from the Fighting Fifth and if he stays sound I am very hopeful of collecting.

WP Mullins runners - whether it be Lossiemouth or State Man or many of the others, his yard is simply not firing right now. Whether they have a bug or its just not clicking, I don't know but it feels really strange for a team that has been peerless for so many years. Shows what a true champ Galopin des Champs is though - he was amazing yesterday.

Brighterdaysahead - has now beaten State Man twice. I thought State Man was carrying plenty of condition (a bit like me after Christmas week) in the Morgiana and expected to see a much fitter animal this week - but he was out with the washing and I'm not sure it was just down to Townend misjudging the pace. The mare simply has to go Champion Hurdle after that and I'm sure they are pulling everyone's leg with talk of the mares race. I think they would love to have a champion hurdle winner on their CVs and so no reason for them to not try and repeat today's tactics in March.

[ComplyOrDie]

I think it was easy enough to deploy them tactics against State Man today, they took the sting out of his speed at a finish.

The problem is Constitution Hill will be able to go with them. Then it will be a battle up that hill, of which I would expect Constitution Hill to come out on top.