Matt Brocklebank feels Gordon Elliott could work his magic with a 25/1 chance set to return in the Unibet Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham.
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1pt e.w. Coeur Sublime in Unibet Champion Hurdle at 25/1 (NRNB)
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It can often pay to take Festival form in isolation and when applying that to this year’s Unibet Champion Hurdle COEUR SUBLIME looks the standout bet at 25/1 (General).
It’s obviously a wide-open edition of the day one feature and, with five weeks to go, there are still some significant cards still to be played.
It's hard to believe the Cheveley Park team aren’t giving the race serious consideration for crack novice Envoi Allen, who arguably looked at his best this season when winning the Royal Bond Novices’ Hurdle over the minimum trip at Punchestown.
He beat leading Sky Bet Supreme hope Abacadabras – a Grade One winner since – and had subsequent Irish Champion Hurdle runner-up Darver Star further back in third so the level of form is exceptional.
Gordon Elliott doesn’t need to make the final call right now but while he’s still stressing the Ballymore as Envoi Allen’s most likely aim it’s a real guessing game to put him up at the best current price of 16/1 – he’s 6/1 NRNB at Sky Bet.
Connections of Honeysuckle and Benie Des Dieux also have other irons in the fire with the Mares’ Hurdle an obvious alternative for both.
You can’t fault Honeysuckle’s attitude and while she remains unbeaten there is always the possibility of pulling out a bit more improvement, but she probably didn’t do enough at Leopardstown over the weekend to make her a bet at 5/1 for the Champion. I’d be surprised if she ran as things stand.
Benie Des Dieux has settled around the 5/2 mark (NRNB) after owner Rich Ricci raised the possibility of her being supplemented.
She’s a very short price for the Mares’ event and Willie Mullins presumably won’t mind tapping home that penalty-kick, despite the fact he’s got Stormy Ireland and maybe also Laurina in the mix for the race he’s completely dominated since its inception.
But Ricci may ramp up the pressure to try and repeat the Annie Power trick if Saldier is struggling with Benie Des Dieux still zinging the week before Cheltenham. She looks classy enough to be seriously competitive if lining up.
Her only previous two-mile run for Mullins came in a Listed mares' chase when winning at Naas but has form over shorter in France and went through the last two runnings of the Mares’ Hurdle at Cheltenham like a horse with a serious turn of speed.
She’s fairly tempting at 14/1 without the non-runner insurance but I’d rather focus on those we fully expect to turn up on March 10 and Epatante is undoubtedly the one they have to beat based on her Christmas Hurdle romp.
Nicky Henderson expected big things from her last season and she started exceptionally well until the wheels came off in the Mares' Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham.
That would have to be at the back of your mind if taking the plunge with her at relatively short odds and instead it's Envoi Allen’s stablemate Coeur Sublime who looks worth chancing to reach the frame.
He's not good enough to win a typical Champion Hurdle but it doesn’t look close to a vintage renewal – it hasn’t for a number of seasons to be perfectly honest but is particularly weak this year – and there is evidence to suggest Coeur Sublime can feature.
Admittedly, this horse has two ways of going and has seemingly been hard to train, but when he’s right he’s dangerous to ignore, as highlighted by his 20/1 second to Pentland Hills in last year's JCB Triumph Hurdle.
That came on the back of a less than inspiring run against older horses at Gowran Park in February and, following the improved run at Cheltenham in March, he went to Fairyhouse as a well-backed favourite, only to finish third after travelling like the best horse in the race before completely emptying.
Coeur Sublime’s in-and-out profile has continued in the current campaign, bolting up in the WKD Hurdle at Down Royal in November; bombing out when second-favourite for the Matheson Hurdle at Leopardstown the following month.
Davy Russell reported him to have made a noise en route to finishing third behind Sharjah over Christmas and we’ve not seen him in public since, but Elliott has worked wonders with similar horses in the past and can be trusted to produce him in top form for the big day. There must be a reasonable chance he resumes having had a breathing operation.
He was certainly delivered in great shape for the 2019 Festival when he looked likely to win coming to the last flight of hurdles before Pentland Hills did him for speed on the run-in.
Perhaps he’ll need another half-mile if he’s ever going to make it at the highest level but he’s still only five, is trained by the right man and it’s surprising to see him at three times the price of Pentland Hills and last year's Sky Bet Supreme hero Klassical Dream, who both have their own issues to conquer.
Posted at 1400 GMT on 05/02/20
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