2023 Punchestown Champion Hurdle Tips

State Man landed three successive wins this season and should be able to return to the winners’ enclosure after finishing second in the English Champion Hurdle. The six-year-old has already won at Punchestown this season when landing the spoils at odds of 4/9 when flourishing in the Morgiana Hurdle, while there was a double success at Leopardstown.

The horse won the Matheson Hurdle when being sent off as the 4/6 favourite and there was everything to like about the way in which the Willie Mullins-trained runner was able to fend off Honeysuckle before running his own race at the Cheltenham Festival. There was only nine lengths separating Constitution Hill and this runner over two miles.

Vauban is the horse that might off the strongest challenge, with the five-year-old having finished fourth in the English Champion Hurdle and the Rich Ricci-owned runner has over six lengths to find on State Man, with the horse having now finished behind his stablemate on three successive occasions.

Pied Piper is potentially a horse that can run a bigger race and the Gordon Elliott-trained runner was second in the County Handicap Hurdle at Cheltenham when being sent off at odds of 12/1. It was only 33/1 outsider Faivoir who was able to beat this runner and perhaps there is more to come from this talented five-year-old.

2022 Punchestown Champion Hurdle Tips

Constitution Hill has only run on three occasions although the five-year-old grabbed lots of Cheltenham headlines during the 2022 Festival. Nicky Henderson was giving out very positive vibes before the 2022 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and the runner motored up the hill to suggest that this is a horse that could give Honeysuckle a big race in next year’s Champion Hurdle.

Perhaps Constitution Hill will clash with Honeysuckle if the latter lines up in this race and it’s a mouth-watering prospect to see the two horses clash over two miles for the first time. The mare has won two English Champion Hurdles and she will continue to benefit from a mares’ allowance when it comes to these Grade 1 encounters.

Bookmaker Unibet were the first to go up with prices and they have Honeysuckle trading at around the even money mark, with Henry de Bromhead’s horse unbeaten during her career thus far and she has passed every test with flying colours, with the mare obliging at betting odds of 8/11 in the 2022 Champion Hurdle.

It was arguably Honeysuckle’s toughest assignment of her career to date and Rachael Blackmore is likely to be reunited with a horse that won the Unibet Champion Hurdle by three lengths when fending off the challenge of previous winner Epatante who could well line up in this encounter.

Zanahiyr is currently the third favourite to win the Punchestown Champion Hurdle and the horse ran an excellent race in the 2022 Champion Hurdle. The Gordon Elliott-trained charge was able to finish in third place in the Grade 1 race and that was despite being sent off at a starting price of 28/1.

Jack Kennedy is likely to be on board for this heat and there will be a hope that the two betting favourites are able to somehow outbattle each other and leave an opportunity. Even running into another third spot would be a great outcome, with Teahupoo bidding for the same result.