Champion Hurdle Betting Guide

"He worked last Saturday with Long Run at Sandown. We boxed them both up and drove them around village twice so they did not where they were going. He worked well. Hurricane Fly beat Binocular comfortably in Ireland but he won’t beat us so comfortably at Cheltenham. The run has brought him along a lot. He was lame after last year and then late in which explains the one run this season – I was tempted to run him last Saturday but the ground was heavy. He will go to Kempton on Saturday and work after racing. His schooling sessions tell us how he is."

Nicky Henderson

18th February 2013

"He seems in great nick, the gallop here is drying up and he's happier. He's really coming to. I've said it before, but he is very much a decent-ground horse. The easiest thing for me to do was to not run him anywhere this season, but that wouldn't have done him any good and the worst thing that could have happened was that he was going to get beat. He has got beat, he's got beat a couple of times and well beat, but I don't think you can judge him until he gets his ground. We're very happy with him at home and I'd like to think we'll see a completely different horse in two weeks' time.

I would never say we're going to win a Champion Hurdle, but I think he'll be different enough to run a big race. We've been second in the last two Champion Hurdles and while the other two lads (Peddlers Cross and Overturn) had to be ridden very prominently because we were taking a chance over two miles, this horse has a bit more tactical speed and he switches off and relaxes. When he's had his ground the form is there. He will be ready to go and he has a massive each-way chance. You'll see a completely different horse come Champion Hurdle day."

Donald McCain

26th February 2013

"Cotton Mill is in great form. He's in the Coral Cup, he's in the County Hurdle, he's in the Champion Hurdle. It sounds silly, but we will decide when we have to. We will have to see how everything goes. I was thrilled with him at Newbury and he's a smashing, lovely kind horse to have round the place."

John Ferguson

22nd February 2013

"I'm very pleased with him. It's very hard to make the running when there's two top-class horses on your tail. At the last he was five lengths down yet at the line he'd reduced that to three. They'd gone a good gallop the whole way and then they were racing from a long way out into a strong headwind. We know he likes Cheltenham and he jumped so much better because the ground was decent. I think he's heading there with a sporting each-way chance."

John Quinn

4th February 2013

"He couldn't do any more. He sat in behind the pace and quickened when he wanted to quicken, so we think he's in good form. He's a lot more settled this year. He settled a bit last year and probably caught us a bit unawares, I think it's just with age that he's settling. He was a lot easier to lead around the parade ring beforehand, and certainly in the race. Ruby said he was very settled, which will improve his performance because he was too keen before. The Champion Hurdle looks very open, and if we can get there in the same form it's all to play for. I respect the English hurdlers but if we can get our horse to Cheltenham in the same sort of form he's in now I'll be happy."

Willie Mullins

29th December 2012

"Ruby said he was as good as he ever felt him. He is in fantastic form. He just wasn't right last season and we could never put our finger on it. It's hard to see a nine-year-old improving, but if I can keep him in that form for the next six or seven weeks, I'd be happy with that going to Cheltenham. The conditions here are terrible, but when Ruby gave him a squeeze coming off the home bend, he took off as though he had just joined in."

Willie Mullins

27th January 2013

"He is clean-winded and does not need as much work so he won’t be going to Kempton on Saturday (to work after racing). He ran very well in The International and does not need to find an awful lot on that form. I would like Darlan back, but sadly I cannot have him, because he might have been the one – that is the way it goes."

Nicky Henderson

18th Feburuary 2013

"He is all set for a prep run at either Sandown on February 2 (Contenders Hurdle) or at Wincanton on February 16 (Kingwell Hurdle), weather permitting, as I'm not sure what the winter is going to bring next. He is not going to run on heavy ground between now and Cheltenham. If the ground is decent, he will have a prep run but if not, he will have a racecourse gallop instead. He is in great form at the moment and his run in the International has brought him on a ton - I am very pleased with him.

Noel (Fehily) felt he was on the winner the whole way at Cheltenham. He travelled like the best horse in the race but the lack of a recent run at that level in those conditions counted against him turning in and over the last. I think he will have had to have improved since last year's Champion Hurdle to win this year's race but he has improved and is much bigger and stronger. My assistant Ciara O'Connor, who rides Rock On Ruby everyday, has been saying that all season and Noel felt exactly the same after the run in December."

Harry Fry

16th January 2013

"He was never right last season and he was only half the horse he is now. He was always going to be a better horse this year, he's grown up and I'm really looking forward to getting him right for the Champion Hurdle. He could run next at Wincanton in February or here on Festival Trials Day in January, but if he didn't run before the Champion Hurdle it wouldn't worry me. He's a class horse and I love him to bits."

Paul Nicholls

17th December 2012

"I don't look at it as Ruby deserting us, he was always going to ride Hurricane Fly. If, God forbid, anything happened to Hurricane Fly then Ruby is the stable jockey and he'd step in on Zarkandar. But they (Daryl Jacob and Ruby Walsh) both get on well with the horse, they are both great lads and it won't be an advantage no matter which of them is on board."

He had a tiny fracture in a hind leg last year, we had to rush to get him back for the Betfair Hurdle, which he won, but he was nowhere near himself in the Champion Hurdle last year. He's in a great place. I'd like to see the ground on the slow side for him as the Champion Hurdle course is a lot sharper than the other course. He loves Cheltenham and I'd say there's not a lot between Hurricane Fly, my lad, Rock On Ruby and, possibly, Grandouet."

Paul Nicholls

21st February 2013