When we talk about current Champion Hurdlers, Honeysuckle is at the forefront of our minds, she’s unbeaten in all of her career starts to date (15 wins in 15 runs, including 11 wins at the highest level of Grade 1) including a 3 and a half-length winner of the Champion Hurdle this season at the Cheltenham Festival, with a Mares Hurdle win two years before also.
She’s had her usual preparation this season again with a run in the Hatton’s Grace, Irish Champion Hurdle and Champion Hurdle at the Festival, which she won those two races by just under 19 lengths with plenty of top-class horses well beaten in behind her.
The Henry De Bromhead is such a slick jumper and a very strong traveller, she has also won at a slightly further distance in the past, making it very hard to get her beat in the race, no matter how the race is run, she has the stamina in her locker to stay on should they go quick, and plenty of boot to speed away when it really matters should it become a sprint in the final parts of the race.
She is certainly the class act horse of the meeting with plenty of racing fans solely going to watch her on the Friday.
She will be incredibly hard to beat in this, with the usual 7lb mares allowance meaning she will be 7lb’s better off in the weights than most of the other runners, giving her a big advantage on the others, but her talent does that anyway.