Kempton preview: Christmas Hurdle (14.35)

David Metcalf | December 23, 2015

Faugheen suffered a shock defeat on seasonal reappearance but looks a worthy red-hot favourite to bounce back and land the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton for a second year running (14.35).

The Willie Mullins trained gelding is a dual Cheltenham Festival winner who was unbeaten in his first nine start over the obstacles.

After easily landing the Coral Hurdle on return to action at Ascot last season, Faugheen followed up in facile fashion when impressively landing this contest by eight lengths from Purple Bay.

The seven-year-old went on to beat stable companion Arctic Fire by 1 1/2 lengths in the Champion Hurdle, and rounded off the campaign with a stunning eight length success over the same rival in the Punchestown Champion Hurdle.

Fantastic Faugheen should be Christmas Hurdle hero

Those successes marked Faugheen out as something special, and the horse dubbed “The Machine” was sent off at odds 1/6 to maintain his unbeaten record when reappearing at Punchestown last month.

However, in the race itself Faugheen was never travelling as sweetly as usual and, after a couple of jumping errors, failed to overhaul another stablemate in Nichols Canyon by 1/2 a length.

Connections were left baffled by the result, as Faugheen had trounced the winner in a recent gallop, but it may well have been just a case that he badly needed the outing.