Champion Hurdle: Betting Odds and Offers Round Up

With the 2018 Cheltenham Festival not far away, anticipation is building up for a carnival where a number of the big names like Thistlecrack are missing.

Defending champions like Sizing John look in shaky form, and a crop of newcomers like Samcro and Next Destination are coming through looking to make their mark at the world’s premier jumps race meeting.

The standout race of Day 1 is always the Champion Hurdle, and this year’s renewal on 13 March is intriguing for a number of reasons. There is an air of uncertainty over Willie Mullins’ 2015 winner Faugheen, after being pulled up in the Ryanair Hurdle at Leopardstown in December and again tasting defeat at the hands of Supasundae last weekend. Connections of Faugheen haven't given up hope that he will return to his peak next month but bookmakers don’t seem convinced and have pushed the 10-year-old out to 6-1 and bigger to regain his crown.

It’s last year’s winner Buveur d’Air, however, who is the runaway favourite, with Nicky Henderson’s six-year-old looking in great nick after a tough yet convincing win in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton and making it nine wins on the bounce at Sandown last Saturday. Odds-on throughout the Winter with every bookmaker in the land, the best price you can now get about Buveur d'Air is 1-2.

No other runners are considered seriously to be in the reckoning with the bookies at this stage. Faugheen's conqueror, Supasundae, is not even entered in the Champion Hurdle while most bookmaker lists quote Yorkhill as third best at around 8-1 but he hasn't jumped a hurdle since his Novice days in 2016 and has been beaten 60 lengths and 80 lengths in his two recent tries over fences. You can check out all the leading bookmaker sites which are listed here by Playright and all their welcome offers and accepted depositing methods are explained.

However, the big news that has just been announced for 2018 is that if you’re betting ante-post, you get Non-Runner No Bet offers at Paddy Power, William Hill, SkyBet and bet365 on all 28 Festival races, including the Champion Hurdle and the Gold Cup. This has already led to an upsurge in early betting this year, and is a welcome relief for those punters looking to get on at decent odds some way out from the race. It can be expected that all other sports books who haven’t already made this offer to punters will follow suit shortly.

For other early Festival specials, Ladbrokes has 'Win Any Race' prices on Apple’s Jade (4-7), Samcro (1-2 ), Footpad (4-5), Getabird (2-1) and Min (2/1) while most bookies will also give you Best Odds Guaranteed across all four days.

There are also some specials to be had in the build up to the big event. Unibet is offering enhanced odds of up to 10% on all of the lead up races to the Festival that it sponsors, while SunBets will give you a £2 free bet at Cheltenham for every £10 bet you make at selected lead up meetings at odds of 1-2 or better.

For other deals with leading sportbooks in the run up to Cheltenham, SkyBet is offering new punters a Bet £10 Get £40 signup bonus, Betfair will give you £30 in free bets when you make a first wager of at least £10, and you can get up £30 in free bets with Betway.