*Odds quoted on the widget are Future Racing / Antepost prices which means that if your selection does not run in the race for whatever reason – you will lose your stake under traditional Antepost rules.

Paddy Power Media’s ‘From The Horse’s Mouth’ podcast ‘Cheltenham Countdown’ is back as host Tom Nugent picks the brains of the Cheltenham Festival’s winning-most jockey turned TV pundit Ruby Walsh and well-known journalist and broadcaster Rory Delargy.

On the first of this year’s series, the gang have looked at the Champion Hurdle ahead of the 2025 Cheltenham Festival.

Rory Delargy:

I’ve long been a massive fan of Brighterdaysahead and my view has always been back her wherever she goes and I’m pot committed, if you like, in poker terms. I’m certainly not going to be talking her down [for the Champion Hurdle].

She is exceptional. I wouldn’t say the Champion Hurdle is necessarily her ideal race, but she strikes me as being a bit like Dawn Run. She has the potential to at least aim for the Champion Hurdle-Gold Cup double that Dawn Run has done and nothing else has.

Dawn Run wasn’t ideally suited by the Champion Hurdle – and she wasn’t impressive – and she wasn’t ideally suited by the Gold Cup, either, but she was so good she won both those races anyway and Brighterdaysahead is very much in the same mould.

You’d say she will be a better chaser than a hurdler, she will be better over further than two miles, but the outstanding ones always are capable of doing that.

My 1-2-3 for the Champion Hurdle: 

Brighterdaysahead, Constitution Hill & Lossiemouth

*Odds quoted on the widget are Future Racing / Antepost prices which means that if your selection does not run in the race for whatever reason – you will lose your stake under traditional Antepost rules.

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