The Mares Hurdle on the Tuesday of the festival is the final Grade One on the first day of the meeting and this seasons renewal looks set to be one of the best we have ever seen.
It gives the horses the only real chance for them to compete within their own sex at the festival for a bumper £67,524 to the winner.
An ideal mix of speed and stamina is needed but cutting deeper into the trends since the races inception in 2008 could yield the winner of the 2m4f event.
10 out of 15 previous winners were rated at least 150, with the main thing to take from this would be that class tells in this contest, however the last two winners of this race were rated 148 and 140.
This years renewal looks different to the last two and being below the 150 threshold will see you be found out with plenty of the runner in and around 150.
11 of the last 15 winners had also won their previous starts before coming to the festival.
Again, Marie's Rock although a winner of her final race before the festival was pulled up on her second run prior to the meeting.
This stat does go against the favourite Honeysuckle who has yet to win this season running in back to back Grade One events.
However, horses near the top of the market like Marie's Rock, Love Envoi and Shewearsitwell have all won their last two races convincingly.
The Irish have had an unrivalled grip over this race since 2008 and nine of the winners have been trained by Willie Mullins.
A big part of that is down to Quevega taking the race six years in a row.
Mullins’ is a master of lining them up in the right race, it can be a case of Mullins bingo leading up to the festival as to what race he’ll send his horses for, but whatever he declares should be in your shortlists.
The current leaders at the top of the horses to watch out for Mullins this season include Brandy Love, Shewearsitwell and Echoes In Rain.
Adding to the importance of proven class coming into the race, 10 of the 15 winners had won a Grade One or Grade Two hurdle.
Again a portion of this comes form Quevega dominating this race for six years straight, she brought a high level of class to the field and it clearly shone through.
Apple’s Jade, Glens Melody and Vroum Vroum Mag had all proved themselves as top quality before coming to Cheltenham to win this.
Marie's Rock did not fit this criteria last season but now heads into the race doing so, having won this Grade One last year and since gone on to land another.
Finally, eight of the 14 winners had ran at the previous year’s Punchestown Festival. With the Irish dominating this race it’s hardly surprising that so many winners had turned out at the late Spring festival.
The Mare's Champion Hurdle held there is a potential key race for this contest as it too is run over two and a half miles at an undulating course.
Again, although Marie's Rock did not hit this stat last year, she does this term having gone over to Ireland and spoiled the party.
The value angle heading into the mares hurdle from an ante-post perspective looks to be last years winner Marie's Rock who may not have hit the trends last season, but this season she does.
The mare has only gone on to improve in her two runs since her win in the festival and if going for this race and not the Stayers, she looks our idea of the winner from the stats.
