Champ & Battleoverdoyen — The leading novice hurdlers ahead of Cheltenham?

The novice hurdle division certainly has a far more open look to it than in previous seasons. The division is really looking for a horse to state its claim, as it doesn’t appear to have a horse in the calibre of Douvan or more recently Samcro, which isn’t a surprise.

Two horses that do continue to impress are Champ and Battleoverdoyen, who are likely to both head to the Ballymore at the festival. Both are well backed, with the odds available on bettinglounge.co.uk/horse-racing-betting-sites/, as Champ remains the slight favourite.

The seven-year-old Champ, who is named after Sir Anthony McCoy, has clearly always had a tall reputation at home. He is trained by current champion trainer Nicky Henderson, who rates the horse highly. Champ draws comparisons to the same trainer and owner combination of the now retired My Tent or Yours, with his unusual head carriage, but this does not seem to affect his finishing kick.

Champ has now won his last four starts in succession and seems to be improving with his racing. He remarkably has a RPR rating of 150 for his comeback success this season, which would indicate he has the potential to rate a very high class horse come the end of his novice season. His race winning move in his comeback run at Newbury was particularly noteworthy as he pulled himself to lead at the 5th and was then never for catching.

This led to him being sent off the short even money favourite for the Challow Novices hurdle, in which he again quickened clear impressively to win by just over two lengths. The race was run at no gallop, which certainly played against the chances of many of the leading contenders in the race. Champ looks an exciting horse and must have a leading chance come the festival in March, in which he is a general 4/1 for the Ballymore, which looks to be his likely target.

The six-year-old Battleoverdoyen is another horse who has long had a tall reputation, and at present looks to be the leading novice hurdler in Ireland. He is trained by Gordon Elliott, and will be looking to emulate the same owners and current stablemate Samcro in landing the Ballymore at the festival. Samcro certainly looked the more finished article than Battleoverdoyen at this stage of his career, who is a real raw individual, and is clearly learning on the job. His future is going to be over fences but he appears to have the gears to go far as a hurdler.

Battleoverdoyen is unbeaten in his short career having won his four starts to date that kicked off with a point-to-point victory in a gelding’s maiden at Loughanmore back in 2017. Following a 592 day break he returned to contest a national hunt flat race at Punchestown, and was sent off at evens, again showing his tall reputation. He travelled through the race with ease before staying on well to assert and win impressively by just over six lengths.

His next start was a maiden hurdle, which resulted in another facile success as he won easily by 13 lengths. To the eye this was a very taking performance, which resulted in him already being talked up as a potential Ballymore winner down the line. His next and most recent start was his first in a Grade one as he contested the Lawlor’s of Naas novice hurdle. Sent off as favourite he put in another very taking performance to win by just over two lengths, despite looking very green up the run in. With the two Willie Mullins fancied horses running no race it is difficult to assess the level of that performance. There is little doubt he is a horse of considerable ability and must be another strong contender for Cheltenham. He can be supported at 6/1 for the opening race on day two of the Cheltenham festival.