A race that has been one of the standout events at the Cheltenham festival over the years, for the last few seasons has been left fairly open with plenty of horses in with a chance and this season it has become even more apparent.
This season has already shown us that not one horse really wants to be the favourite for the feature Grade One contest on the first day of the festival with now four horses all having their time at the top of the market.
Klassical Dream for Willie Mullins started the season off as favourite before any horse had run and to many was a strange market leader with him coming out of novice company for the first time.
However, this all changed and the five-year-old was taken out of the hotspot when getting beat by his stablemate Saldier and he was sent straight to the top of the market after landing the Grade One Morgiana Hurdle.
He was also joined by the dual winner of the race in 2017 and 2018 with Buveur D'Air getting some market support off the back of Klassical Dream's poor seasonal bow.
Many went onto think that Nicky Henderson's Champion Hurdle winner should have been the opening favourite for the race off the back of his record in the event and if not falling in last season's, arguably he would have gone on to win the race.
However, running with the common theme of the division he also has drifted in the market and is likely to miss the contest now after picking up an injury in the Grade One Fighting Fifth last Saturday.
He finished a narrow second to Cornerstone Lad in the black type contest, but it was revealed after the race that when hitting the second to last flight he got a piece of wood lodged in his hoof and he has since been operated on.
With Buveur D'Air now potentially out of the contest it was Saldier's turn to give the favourite status to someone else after Mullins revealed at the end of last year that his hurdling star did not come out of the Morgiana Hurdle well and will now not be seen again until February, which is not a positive.
This has now led to the bookmakers not truly knowing how to price up the most likely runners for the Grade One in March with many horses on the periphery of favouritism.
With all this going on there was more drama with Pentland Hills making his seasonal debut at Cheltenham in the International Hurdle and although travelling well blew up before the finish and tailed off which again saw a drift in the market for the youngster.
Fussil Raffles for Henderson basically took his name out of contention for the contest when being pulled up in the Christmas Hurdle, but it was not all doom and gloom for the trainer as that race found the new favourite for the contest from his yard.
Leading mare Epatante kept her unbeaten record going for the season when showing a highly impressive turn of foot to land the Grade One Christmas Hurdle at Kempton on Boxing Day and she now tops the market as a general 3/1 favourite. Others that are worth a mention in this ever-changing division of runners are Sharjah for Willie Mullins who got his season back on track when landing back to back Grade One Matheson Hurdles over in Ireland which again saw another lacklustre run from the previous favourite Klassical Dream and Honeysuckle who looks likely to end up in the Mares Hurdle but has the ability to go close in this contest.
The Champion Hurdle is one of the feature races of the meeting but for the last few seasons has become a division that is so open that punters are left more times than not out of pocket and it looks like this season will be no different unless we get more outstanding individual performance.