Time for 7-4 Teahupoo
THE Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle is the most open of the Festival’s feature races — run it 10 times and this line-up might throw up five or six different winners. But the most likely one to come out on top is Gordon Elliott’s
TEAHUPOO.
Last year’s third returns a more mature and complete athlete at the age of seven, the age of five of the past seven winners. But the most compelling reason for backing him is that Elliott has kept him fresh for the race. Jack Kennedy’s mount has a 100 per cent record when he returns to the track after a significant break. Some horses take a lot out of themselves physically when they race and need time to replenish their batteries. When Teahupoo ran last year, he had also raced in January. This time round he has not run since he won the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle at Fairyhouse on December 3. Three previous Stayers’ Hurdle winners line up — Paisley Park, Flooring Porter, who has twice been successful, and last year’s scorer Sire Du Berlais. The latter’s superb Festival record gives him place claims, despite his advancing years. On his six previous Festival forays, he has won the Pertemps Hurdle twice, as well as finishing unplaced one year, won and finished second in this race and finished fourth in the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle. Crambo is a new stayer on the block in a division of old stagers, so he is interesting, but the best of the Brits may be last year’s runner-up Dashel Drasher, trained by Jeremy Scott, who invariably runs well and was second last year. 1 ............... TEAHUPOO 2 .... SIRE DU BERLAIS 3 ...DASHEL DRASHER