Yanworth odds to win Champion Hurdle 2017 – 14th March 2017

Can Yanworth make amends for previous Cheltenham disappointments?

Cheltenham Festival

At a 7/2 price across the board, what value is Yanworth for the Champion Hurdle title with Coral? Well the has managed to land three Graded title this season and that isn’t anything to be sneezed at of course. Among his wins this season the took the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton and trainer Alan King has been having a fine season already and will be hoping to land the big Festival success in the top feature race on Tuesday.

Last season at Cheltenham, Yanworth tasted a bitter loss when he was beaten out by the highly impressive Yorkhill in the Neptune, having gone into the battle as favorite. But he has responded well since then, opening the season with a triumph over Lil Rockerfeller at Ascot in November, before taking down The New One at Kempton in the Christmas Hurdle. His final outing before Cheltenham was in mid February taking a Grade II win at Wincanton.

With Faugheen and Annie Power missing from the Champion Hurdle 2017 because of injury, the race has taken a bit of a quality hit and it has really left the field very wide open for punters to try and make sense of. Barry Geraghty had ridden Yanworth in each of his eight starts over the hurdles, but with his injury, Mark Walsh is coming into the saddle.

The thing about Yanworth is that he hasn’t totally convinced backers. In his win over Ch’tibello and Sceau Royal in the Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton in mid February, he seemed to make harder work of things than it should have been. After the win, his odds for taking the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival 2017 drifted a bit after a less than stellar showing. But there is some history here, created by Alan King ,as back in 2008 he produced a win for Katchit in the Kingwell Hurdle who then went on to claim the Champion Hurdle that year.

What has also affected Yanworth’s preparations has been injury when he pulled a muscle which kept him out of a prep race at Sandown. The team wanted him at Sandown in particular to give him a proper gallop on a course that suited him, but that didn’t happen. But again, questions may be raised about his fluency and sharpness ahead of the Champion Hurdle 2017. It has after all, been a case of missed chances at Cheltenham before for him, coming home fourth in the Champion Bumper in 2015 and then that defeat by Yorkhill last season at Prestbury Park in the Neptune.

But Yarnworth is the only horse to have beaten challenger The New One this year and with questions over Petit Mouchoir’s jumping and Buveur D’Air’s switching around to make a run at this following the withdrawal Faugheen and Annie Power, there is still a big window of opportunity for Yanworth to pull out one of his top drawer performances and land the title. After all, he has been winning this season without looking at his best and if he can put things together on the day, he should be in contention, even without Gargathy in the saddle.

Because of the interruptions in his preparations for Cheltenham, punters would have looked a bigger bite of the cherry in a price, but considering all that he’s been through, injury and less than ideal performances, he has still managed to hang in there as joint-favourite for the Champion Hurdle 2017. That perhaps, says it all.

Champion Hurdle 2017 Odds

Yanworth 7/2, Buveur D’Air 7/2, Limini 9/2, Petit Mouchoir 6/1, Brain Power 7/1, Moon Racer 10/1, Vroum Vroum Mag 10/1, Tombstone 12/1, The New One 14/1, Jezki 14/1, Footpad 16/1, Nichols Canyon 16/1, bar 20/1.

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