Ebaziyan books Festival ticket

EBAZIYAN will return to the scene of his finest hour for a crack at the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle following his return to winning form under Ruby Walsh at Leopardstown yesterday.

The 2007 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle winner made the journey to Cheltenham last March to finish 12th in the hurdling championship, and William Hill quote him at 100-1 to claim hot-favourite Binocular’s scalp this time around.

The Willie Mullins-trained grey has been out of sorts for a long while but displayed renewed enthusiasm in the Ballsbridge Hurdle when seeing off his three rivals with an eight-length blitz as the 8-11 favourite.