Cheltenham Festival: Nicky Henderson’s Champ heads to Aintree and misses Stayers’ Hurdle | Racing News
Nicky Henderson’s Champ was the standout name missing from the Stayers’ Hurdle entries, with 28 runners in the Cheltenham Festival race at this stage.
The 2020 RSA Chase winner will bypass Prestbury Park in favour of a trip to Merseyside for the Grand National meeting in April.
After winning on seasonal return at Newbury, he was beaten by Paisley Park in the rearranged Long Walk Hurdle at Kempton after leading for much of the way.
Champ jumps to the front in the Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury
And that has led Nicky Henderson to give Champ a break, with the aim of building him back up towards the end of the season.
“Champ is on a little break so he won’t be running at Cheltenham,” said Frank Berry, racing manager to owner JP McManus.
“He will be freshened up for Aintree, that is the plan with him.”
Champ’s name wasn’t among the 28 possible runners for the contest when the entries were released on Tuesday, including Flooring Porter, Buzz and Paisley Park.
The latter was last seen defying the tight turns of Kempton when landing the rearranged Long Walk Hurdle on Boxing Day, the 11-year-old will attempt to win the Dahlbury Stallions At Chapel Stud Cleeve Hurdle for a fourth time on January 28 as he completes his on-track Festival preparations.
And his trainer is proud to see him still competing at the highest level despite his advancing years.
“It just goes to show that you should never pigeonhole Paisley and I couldn’t have been happier with him on a track (Kempton) that probably doesn’t play to his strengths,” said Lavelle.
“I was very proud that he’s still winning at that level as a 10-year-old. “Touch wood, he’s in great order – good, fresh and well and he’ll go to the Cleeve Hurdle first and the Stayers’ Hurdle is his big aim as ever. He’ll do one more piece of work on the grass next week (ahead of the Cleeve) but he’s in good form.”
Paisley Park has finished placed behind Gavin Cromwell’s hat-trick seeking Flooring Porter in the past two years, but Lavelle has hopes of a reversal this time.
Paisley Park goes clear of Goshen to win his third Grade One Long Walk Hurdle title
On turning the tables with the defending champion, she continued: “I certainly hope so – I do think so far this year that he has been performing better than last year and if he can keep that up, I’d like to think we’ll be finishing closer or hopefully in front of him.”
The Paddy Power market is dominated by Irish-trained entries with Flooring Porter heading the betting at 5-1 and closely followed by Joseph O’Brien’s Christmas Hurdle scorer Home By The Lee and Willie Mullins’ Klassical Dream.
The latter is one of eight for the Closutton handler with the possible Mullins runners including the Rich Ricci-owned pair of Chacun Pour Soi and Monkfish and last year’s Ballymore winner Sir Gerhard.
Charles Byrnes won the race with Solwhit in 2013 and could be represented by Blazing Khal, while the shortest-priced British-trained entry is Nicky Henderson’s Marie’s Rock, despite last year’s Mares’ Hurdle champion most likely to defend her title over shorter on the Tuesday of the Festival.
