Champion Hurdle confirmed for Medici Sempre Medici is to be part of Willie Mullins' formidable assault on the Stan James Champion Hurdle following his victory at Gowran on Saturday. The six-year-old may be the biggest price of the Mullins brigade headed by odds-on favourite and defending champion Faugheen, with Arctic Fire and Nichols Canyon giving the trainer the first three in the betting. However, Sempre Medici is a decent horse in his own right and staked his claim to be in the Cheltenham showpiece on March 15 with a seven-length triumph in the Grade Two Red Mills Trial Hurdle. "It was nice. It looks like he will have to run in the Champion Hurdle. I don't think there's much else for him," Mullins told At The Races.