Betting on the 2009 Champion Hurdle is easy isn't it? You just have a bet on Binocular at 6/4  and hope and pray that he gets to the Festival in the same form as he did at Ascot for the rearranged International Hurdle and you wait about four minutes and you get paid. Simple… or is it?

The performance put up by Binocular in winning at Ascot was one of the most visually impressive runs I have ever witnessed and he looks a good thing in my opinion as I believe trainer Nicky Henderson and jockey AP McCoy consider the four-year-old the real deal and I fully expect the JP McManus gelding to join the Hurdling greats in the next couple of years granted he remains injury free.

If he still has his doubters they will refer back to the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle when as a juvenile who was run out of it up the Cheltenham hill by another McManus owned animal Captain Cee Bee who is, unfortunately, out for the current season. For most of that race Binocular travelled like the best horse in the field and back in Juvenile company he ran all over Triumph Hurdle winner Celestial Halo at Aintree a performance that suggested he was the cream of a vintage crop of juvenile hurdlers in 2008.

Stan James are betting ½ that a five-year-old wins the 2009 Champion Hurdle ( it is 6/4 for a horse of any other age to win) and the statisticians will tell you that it was 23 years from See You Then in 1985 until 2008 when the diminutive Katchit broke the five-year-old Champion Hurdle voodoo. Alan King’s Champion has not recaptured that form in three starts already this season and I am convinced it was a poor renewal he won in 2008.

Katchit is out to 12/1 with Stan James to win back-to-back and it is possible that he reserves his best for Cheltenham but even his most ardent of supporters would tell you that he has not looked the same horse so far this term and was easily brushed aside by Binocular at Ascot.

The only horse I am worried about as a Binocular backer is Sizing Europe who is due to run at Leopardstown over the Christmas period. Sizing Europe is 6/1 2nd favourite in the betting with stanjames.com for the Champion Hurdle having made a satisfactory reappearance when runner up to the evergreen Hardy Eustace. Trainer Henry De Bromhead had made a very quiet start to the season and warned punters that his stable star would not be fully wound up for his reappearance. He cruised through the event like much the best horse only to fall in a hole coming to the last.

That form is light years away from Champion Hurdle class but it ought to be remembered that he went off 2/1 favourite for the 2008 Champion Hurdle on the back of a wonderful in the AIG Europe Champion Hurdle a display which I felt would take him to Champion Hurdle glory. He looked to be going best of all when entering the home straight at Cheltenham but he quickly gave way and it was felt that he had a back injury. His run in the December Festival Hurdle is eagerly anticipated and he may give Binocular most to do in March but he has much to prove at present.

Punjabi has been installed by sponsors Stan James at 6/4 for the Stan James Christmas Hurdle on Boxing Day but he will have to win very impressively to make any major impression on the betting for the Champion despite the fact that he ran very well in when third in the race in 2008.

Latest betting on the 2009 Champion Hurdle from Stan James: ¼ odds 1,2,3
Binocular 6/4
Sizing Europe 6/1
Crack Away Jack 10/1
Osana 10/1
Jered 11/1
Katchit 12/1
Punjabi 12/1
Celestial Halo 14/1
Snap Tie 14/1
Sublimity 16/1
Morning Supreme 16/1
20/1 Bar

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