We may not have seen best of Hardy Eustace yet

ANYONE else mildly surprised there was no real tightening in the price of Hardy Eustace for the Champion Hurdle, following his seasonal debut at Navan on Sunday?

You would have thought he was entitled to be promoted to clear favouritism, but the firms didn’t see any reason to get excited and plenty 7-1 is still widely available.

Of course it is a wide open contest and, remarkably, the first six in the betting, depending on where you look, are all Irish-trained, a situation which would have been quite unthinkable not so long ago.