The old line about ‘Hamlet without the Prince’ might get taken out for more than one spin in advance of Tuesday’s Unibet Champion Hurdle although dramatic value looks like being at a premium.
In Constitution Hill’s absence, hurdling’s championship looks State Man’s for the taking in a renewal surely among the most uninspiring in the race’s near 100-year history.
If it was State Man’s misfortune to run into an exceptional Constitution Hill a year ago, then the cards look to have fallen heavily in his favour now.
The eight-time Grade One winner is a top-flight operator in his own right, albeit one that hasn’t quite captured public imagination in the same way as his absent rival.
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With Constitution Hill continuing his rehabilitation from a disastrously-timed respiratory infection, State Man has seven opponents he will be expected to routinely put in their place.
On official ratings, Willie Mullins’s star has 11lbs in hand on his nearest rivals, one of them being Irish Point who up to a couple of weeks ago was being aimed at Thursday’s Stayers crown.
The other, Not So Sleepy, is a veteran at 12 and hasn’t made the frame on four previous attempts at hurdling’s two-mile championship.
The other Irish hopes, Colonel Mustard and Zarak The Brave, are admirable horses in their own right although hardly aspire to joining one of the most luminous rolls of honour in the sport.
All told, it doesn’t smack of a race that will be recalled in decades to come with the reverence accorded to the famous 1977 edition, still acclaimed 47 years later as the deepest hurdle race ever run.
On that occasion Night Nurse beat Monksfield, Sea Pigeon, Dramatist and Bird Nest. Even the sixth, Beacon Light, was rated high enough to win an average Champion Hurdle.
If it’s unfair to damn many of Tuesday’s field for not being something else, it would be disingenuous to pretend race fans are going to be hanging over the rails in anticipation either.
One echo, however, will be how Monksfield graduated from second to champion status in 1978, a jump State Man is also trying to make.
That Willie Mullins and Paul Townend were fancying their chances of reversing form with Constitution Hill anyway, convinced their horse wasn’t quite at his best at the festival a year ago, underlines State Man’s quality.
With a 2022 festival victory under his best in the County, it’s not like last year’s performance was due to some aversion to the track. Even if it was, State Man has so much in hand of his rivals anyway.
That may mean this Champion Hurdle will be notable for its shortest-ever-priced winning favourite. Constitution Hill holds that accolade with a 4-11 ‘SP’ last year. Bookies going shorter on State Man could hardly be accused of extortion.
The biggest shocks in Champion Hurdle history were the 50-1 winners Kirriemuir (1965) and Beech Road (in 1989). It’s hard to make the case for a similar outcome now.
If the inclusion of State Man’s stable companion Lossiemouth would have made for a more intriguing prospect, her own apparent relative ‘penalty kick’ in the following Close Bros Mares Hurdle was always going to be impossible to resist for the Mullins camp.
Jack Kennedy teams up with Lantry Lady for Henry de Bromhead in the Mares although his best hopes could rest with Ndaawi in the Boodles and The Goffer who has another go at the Ultimata Handicap Chase.
Perhaps one of the safer bets of the day is that Kennedy will be rather more patient on The Goffer than Davy Russell was a year ago when fourth in a vintage renewal. That The Goffer is on a 5lb lower mark this time is no hindrance either.
Cheltenham: 1.30- Tullyhill 2.10- Hunters Yarn 2.50- The Goffer 3.30- State Man 4.10- Lossiemouth 4.30- Ndaawi 5.30- Embassy Gardens (Nap)
Nap and Double- Embassy Gardens & The Goffer
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