#Matheson Hurdle

By Andrew Asquith, Saturday 14 January 2023 Posted in: Cheltenham Festival Tips Andrew Asquith looks ahead to the 2023 Champion Hurdle. The Champion Hurdle is the main race on day one of the Cheltenham Festival and this year's renewal revolves around one horse, and one horse only, Constitution Hill, who produced the best performance by a novice…

The treats are going to come thick and fast for racing fans over the Christmas week. They include Leopardstown's four-day Christmas Festival, which begins on St Stephen's Day (December 26). This is a superb meeting with a wide array of Graded contests, competitive handicaps and informative bumpers for punters to enjoy. Danny Archer looks ahead to…

It was another fantastic festive period of equine action as Leopardstown and Limerick took centre stage at the end of December. Not surprisingly, Kilkenny trainer Willie Mullins continued to dominate the training sphere over the days after Christmas as he saddled 16 winners, of which were five Grade 1's. In total Mullins had 73 runners over the…

Picking up from my last column to cover the remainder of the holiday program (December 28 to January 1) in what was the busiest post-Boxing Day period for some time, the narrative seemed to me more of the same - some horses enhanced their reputations, a bigger number diminished theirs, and a standout performance to breathe new life into some…

A NEW kid on the block has emerged as the main danger to Constitution Hill at Cheltenham. Nicky Henderson's wonder horse is as short as 2-7 for the Champion Hurdle and notched his fourth straight Grade 1 win at Kempton on Boxing Day. Opposition towards him at the Festival in March was looking very thin on the ground, especially with Honeysuckle…

Emerging forces and established stars of the Irish National Hunt scene are set to come out and play at the Leopardstown Christmas Festival. The four-day racing bonanza takes place between Monday, December 26 and Thursday, December 29 and it is set to offer plenty of clues ahead of the big spring meetings. We're sponsoring all seven races on the…

State Man continued his march towards a likely clash with Constitution Hill at the Cheltenham Festival in March with a comprehensive victory in the Matheson Hurdle at Leopardstown. Nicky Henderson's Constitution Hill is long odds-on to lift the Champion Hurdle crown in March following his latest demolition job in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton on…

Brazil: produced a smart performance to beat Fil Dor in Grade 3 company at Naas A race that at its entry stage had the likes of Vauban, Pied Piper, Gaelic Warrior, Icare Allen and Irish Point has ended up in an unexpected match - the first two-horse race at declaration stage in Ireland for a decade. There have been nine match races across the last…

Nicky Henderson's Constitution Hill is long odds-on to lift the Champion Hurdle crown in March following his latest demolition job in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton on Boxing Day. And while connections of the unbeaten five-year-old are unlikely to be quaking in their boots, State Man gave further evidence he may well prove his biggest threat with…

Seddon: well supported in Leopardstown's opener on Thursday Seddon, a comfortable five-and-a-half-length winner over hurdles at Cheltenham's October meeting when last seen, has been well backed for the Adare Manor Opportunity Handicap Chase (12.00), which kicks off the final day of Leopardstown's Christmas festival. The nine-year-old struck at the…

The ITV Racing team will again head to Leopardstown on Thursday, as their Christmas Festival draws to a thrilling conclusion. Along with four races from Leopardstown, ITV viewers have two strong races to take in at Doncaster, including a Listed chase for mares. Mares' Hurdle runner-up, Queens Brook won nicely on her reappearance at Punchestown and…

Leopardstown is once more the mainstay for the ITV Racing team on Thursday, with another brace of Grade 1 races from the Foxrock track on the final afternoon of its Christmas Festival. The Neville Hotels Novices Chase (1.45pm) and the Matheson Hurdle (2.20pm) are the features from Leopardstown, with ITV showing four races from Ireland alongside two…

1pt win Spirit Of Legend in 2.55 Leopardstown at 7/1 (bet365) 1pt win Boldmere in 2.40 Doncaster at 8/1 (bet365) Thursday's ITV4 coverage takes in four from Leopardstown and two from Doncaster and we kick-off with the Grade 2 BeattheBank.ie Irish EBF Mares Hurdle in Ireland. This shouldn't be too difficult to solve if QUEENS BROOK is at her best,…

Leopardstown 13:10 - Falcon Eight (each-way) Leopardstown 13:45 - Flooring Porter Leopardstown 14:20 - A Plus Tard Leicester 14:35 - Issam (each-way) Leopardstown 14:55 - Gentlemansgame Leicester 15:10 - Honneur D'ajonc (each-way) *All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but…

12:45 Kempton - Artistic Choice 13:05 Chepstow - Broken Halo (each way) 13:20 Kempton - Boothill 13:40 Chepstow - Scriptwriter 13:55 Kempton - Get A Tonic 14:10 Chepstow - Flight Deck (each way) 14:30 Kempton - Nube Negra 14:50 Chepstow - Truckers Lodge (each way) 15:09 Kempton - Kitty's Light (each way) *All prices are bang up to date with our…

A scroll through Twitter on the evening of December 26 in recent years has tended to reveal Paul Nicholls celebrating King George success with a McDonald's on the way back from Kempton. The Ditcheat maestro, who is seeking a record-extending 13th win in the race, could well be lovin' it again on Monday with Bravemansgame and Hitman among the main…

Britain's festive spectacular, the Ladbrokes King George VI Chase (2.30), is one of the highlights of the year and is already shaping up to be a post-Christmas cracker on December 26. The King George has been won by some of jump racing's legends in the past, and we have taken a look at who could join that illustrious roll of honour based on…

Steve Packham (third left): hoping Goshen can gain a first Grade 1 in the Long Walk Hurdle No-one could begrudge Steve Packham a first Grade 1 winner at Kempton on Monday and Goshen's owner believes his fans' favourite will relish a first try over three miles in the Ladbrokes Long Walk Hurdle (12.45). The Gary Moore-trained Goshen looked a Grade 1…

Leopardstown: two days of the track's Christmas festival will be shown on ITV Racing Horse Racing Ireland is looking forward to Irish meetings playing a crucial role in the ITV Racing Christmas Festival, but it is unlikely it will add another fixture to its schedule to make it a week-long spectacular of coverage in the future. The ITV Racing…

Michael Buckley, still revelling in the sensational atmosphere he experienced when Constitution Hill shone at Newcastle last month, hopes the Christmas crowd at Kempton can enjoy an equally thrilling treat on Monday when the sport's newest superstar lines up in the Ladbrokes Christmas Hurdle (1.55). Trained by Buckley's close pal Nicky Henderson,…

Bravemansgame (left) and Hitman: in the running for the Ladbrokes King George VI Chase Sam Twiston-Davies is pinning his hopes of another King George VI Chase (2.30) on the fantastic jumping of Hitman, the horse he rides in the Ladbrokes-sponsored event at Kempton on Monday. Twiston-Davies won the prestigious Grade 1 in 2019 when he rode Clan Des…

Frost and snow has hit hard in Britain and Ireland but over the festive period ITV are planning on covering action from 14 race meetings, featuring 41 races in total, across six joyous days of high-octane racing. From Boxing Day right through to New Year's Day, the Christmas jumpers are out in force and here we highlight the full schedule including…

THE Champion Hurdle is one of the big races at Cheltenham Festival. And with it coming up in just a few weeks, the ante post mark is hotting up nicely. Henry de Bromhead won it last year with the unbeaten Honeysuckle. Rachael Blackmore rode the superstar mare to victory by more than six lengths. Here, SunSport looks at the current ante post market…

Galvin, Conflated and Fil Dor are among the big names set to be in action for Gordon Elliott over the festive period as the Cullentra handler shuffles his pack for Leopardstown's Christmas Festival. Elliott has enjoyed huge success at the four-day meeting in recent years, with Galvin's thrilling Savills Chase victory over A Plus Tard a clear…

The first Grade One race for hurdlers in Ireland takes place at Punchestown on Sunday, as a select field enters the Morgiana Hurdle. This two-miler has been won by several future Champion Hurdle winners, including Brave Inca, Hurricane Fly and Faugheen and this year's contest will, again, be shown live on ITV Racing. Let's take a look through the…

Klassical Dream made light of a long absence as he ran out a hugely impressive winner of the Ladbrokes Champion Stayers Hurdle at Punchestown. ready winner of the Supreme Novices' Hurdle in 2019, when he also followed up at this meeting, his career hit the buffers last season. Sent off an odds-on favourite in two Grade One outings, he was beaten in…

Constitution Hill: red-hot Champion Hurdle favourite was withdrawn at Ascot on Saturday Nicky Henderson offered a robust defence of the decision to withdraw Constitution Hill from the Coral Hurdle at Ascot due to the going, insisting the welfare of his star hurdler was at the centre of all of the decision making on Saturday. Constitution Hill was…

The good news for those hoping to dent Willie Mullins' domination of the Unibet Morgiana Hurdle is that he has resisted running all six of the runners he left in the race earlier this week. But the bad news is that he still has three live contenders as he seeks to win the Grade One feature for the twelfth time since 2011. Here's a guide to the five…

This race has provided the launchpad to Champion Hurdle-winning campaigns for Brave Inca and Hurricane Fly. State Man - according to the market - is the likeliest candidate to follow the same path from this year's Morgiana Hurdle. Just five go to post for Ireland's opening Grade 1 hurdle of the season, but it still presents an opportunity for us to…

Willie Mullins takes this Morgiana Hurdle business seriously. We know that he does, because he has won it 11 times in total, and 10 times since 2011. His one lapse in the last 11 years was in 2020, when Abacadabras beat Saint Roi by a neck. If you had to nominate a point in the season, a weekend in the season, at which the Willie Mullins wheel…

Sunday: Morgiana Hurdle, Punchestown Sharjah strengthened his case to be considered one of the most underappreciated hurdlers Willie Mullins has trained with his second Unibet Morgiana Hurdle success under trusted ally Patrick Mullins. Trying to shine in Honeysuckle's shadow has been an unenviable task for the ever-reliable eight-year-old, but he…