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WITH all of today’s — and indeed Sunday’s — national hunt cards once again claimed by the weather, we are left with just all-weather action.

So what I have decided to do is give my bets at the two meetings with a long-term look forward to next year’s Champion Hurdle.

As far as this afternoon is concerned here are my main plays:

Lingfield Park:

12.05 — DIRHAM EMERATI — returns here fit from hurdling and has dropped to  really dangerous rating of 76 and could be worth a small each-way play.

1.15 — LILKIAN — Beautifully drawn in box number one, this course and distance winner is now fully 5lbs below his last winning mark.

Chelmsford:

4.15 — MIMOSET — As consistent as the day is long this could be the day that this top weight finally returns to winning form over his best trip.

5.15 — KARDINYA (nap) — Measured Moments is worthy of the greatest respect, but the selection is running really well and her rival should make the market for the bay gelding.

For many of you I know that having a mid-to-long range punt on the Cheltenham Festival is still madness until we have turned the corner into 2023, but the markets are beginning to unravel with the latest turn of events surrounding the Champion Hurdle being hugely intriguing.

That is because the recent defeats of Epatante and Honeysuckle have left most of us guessing at to which option these two brilliant mares will choose.

I thought that the recent interview with John Francome was most illuminating with the great one suggesting that the Mares Hurdle is diluting the big one on the opening day and I have to concur with him.

With the mares’ allowance the fairer sex should always feel they have a chance in the big one and it is worth remembering as fabulous as Constitution Hill has looked both on the figures and to the naked eye in a season-and-a-half over timber, this game tends to hit you hard between the eye balls and in the pocket when you least expect it to.

The running of the 2022 Champion Stakes at Ascot should act as a timely refresher that there is no such thing as a certainty in racing.

That superb rating for the Nicky Henderson-trained youngster came off the back of a four-horse race where he was allowed to dominate and was never remotely challenged.

That success could merely tell us that he is simply on a different planet to the rest of the hurdling community. I am not saying that he was flattered, but I would love to see the son of Blue Bresil have to respond to pressure and see what comes forth.

The adage of never being afraid of one horse sometimes rings true, but it seems that Mrs Henderson and De Bromhead are absolutely running scared and to some degree you could concur with that view, and yet …why would a three times Cheltenham Festival winner and a dual Champion Hurdle heroine decline to defend her championship and turn her back on a history making run just because her trainer wants to give her the best chance of winning in March.

Henry said that one of the reasons she was beaten at Fairyhouse was that she didn’t stay. Mmmmm isn’t the Mares Hurdle over two-and-a-half miles as well? And were she to line up there, I suspect the other players would once again try and run the finish out of her. If she were mine I would be gasping to see her line up against Constitution Hill and prove all the doubters wrong.

But if that is their port of call and Epatante follows suit then it makes the clamour for an each-way bet in the big one even more enticing.

At double-figure odds, Vauban, is a possible big improver and Mullins is uber keen to get him to Cheltenham a fresh horse, the Matheson Hurdle at Leopardstown (Dececmber 29) his most likely starter for 10. If he wins that race impressively then a top price of 12/1 becomes nearer 7s.

Honeysuckle’s conqueror, Teahupoo, won’t beat at least three or four of the entries for the Champion over two miles on good ground and with no intermediate race over two-and-a-half miles, Gordon Elliott looks set to run him the Stayers Hurdle.

I don’t think Pied Piper has the finishing speed to trouble the best over two, I had him marked down as more of a stayer at the beginning of the season, so the likeable I LIKE TO MOVE IT could be the each-way play at this stage at a top price of 50/1.

There are a couple of plus points in backing him now. Firstly, we know the Champion is his definite aim and secondly, Cheltenham holds no terrors for him. NTD rates him better than his hugely popular hurdler The New One, and boy he will need to be to hit the frame in this year’s renewal, but there is no telling what his ceiling is even if he does need to take another major step forward.

The other huge point is the ‘frighten factor’. Should Constitution Hill dot up on the bridle in the Christmas Hurdle, I suspect the field on the Tuesday of the festival will be eight or possibly less which would make our 50/1 each-way play look very attractive if only for a place and if CH bombs out then…

The other likely improver on good ground is the likeable KNAPPERS HILL (33/1). He has done nothing but step forward in the last 12 months and will always be at his best on a good surface.

I thought he had loads more in the tank than the winning margin suggested when putting to sleep the useful yardstick Sceau Royal in the Elite Hurdle at Wincanton.

Six from nine over timber, I would venture to add that he remains a work in progress and you can count on Nicholls getting him to the start as fit as a flea and ready to run for his life.

Of the other players listed in the ante-post books I have been willing Mullins to let El Fabiolo remain over timber, but all his entries suggest he will experience his first novice chase over Christmas. 

So in conclusion, this is a premier event that is set to fall apart at the seams in the next six weeks and the ante-post each-way value seems the logical way to make money.

A place at a double figure price guarantees that and if something went amiss with the Hill, then who knows. Keep the memory of Baaeed at the forefront of you logical mindset.