New leaders in Champion Hurdle market
Ladbrokes have cut the pair to 7-2 joint market leaders, while William Hill go 100-30 about them. Totesport favour Hardy Eustace at 3-1, but Coral have Back In Front out on his own at 100-30.
Harchibald has been eased all round, although Irish-trained horses still occupy the top seven positions in the betting for the big race on March 15.
Hardy Eustace, the reigning champion, would cost Ladbrokes £300,000 ante-post and represents the firm’s worst Festival result at this stage.
Hardy Eustace leapt up the order after finishing third in the Irish Champion Hurdle, putting a lacklustre run behind him in the process.
The eight-year-old has since run out an easy winner of the Grade Two Red Mills Trial Hurdle, and big-race jockey Conor O’Dwyer has issued an upbeat bulletin.
“Dessie (Hughes) seems very happy with him. I haven’t sat on him since but he couldn’t do any more than he did in the Red Mills,” he told At The Races.
“He jumped well, travelled well even on ground he wouldn’t have been completely at home on, and we are very happy with him.”
Although Harchibald has drifted in the betting, trainer Noel Meade has not discounted running in the race.
“We will just have to see how he progresses now. I don’t think I will be doing any long pieces of work with him but we will see how he goes and I might give him a little breeze later in the week,” he said.
“I wouldn’t rule him out of Cheltenham yet, though.”
The County Meath handler was left “stunned” after Harchibald’s performance at Navan and although he gave the gelding a thorough check-up when he returned to the yard, no excuses have come to light.
“He seems fine. He came back after the work and we scoped him and checked him over and everything seemed OK,” said Meade.
“We haven’t taken any blood yet, but we will do that tomorrow too.”
The six-year-old had been due to work at Leopardstown yesterday but with heavy ground at the track, Meade opted to reroute to his local course.
Harchibald worked over a mile and three-quarters under Peter Kavanagh and although the ground was testing, Meade does not want to blame the conditions.
“It’s a mystery why he should work as badly as he did,” he said.
