My Tent Or Yours heading straight to Cheltenham for Champion Hurdle

My Tent Or Yours is set to go straight to Cheltenham after connections decided against giving him a prep run in the Morebattle Hurdle at Kelso.

The Nicky Henderson-trained seven-year-old will instead have a racecourse gallop ahead of the Champion Hurdle, for which he is a 7/2 chance with Coral.

That is far from ideal news for his backers as Henderson stated after his latest win in the Christmas
Hurdle at Kempton that he “can be very keen in his races and would be better with another run under his belt”.

The champion trainer had planned to run him in the Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton, but that was ruled out due to the testing conditions leaving the Morebattle as the last remaining option to get a run into him before the feature race on the opening day of the Festival on Tuesday, March 11th.

However, connections have now decided against a trip to the Scottish track.

Frank Berry, racing manager to owner JP McManus, said: “He’ll go straight to Cheltenham and I’m sure he’ll have a racecourse gallop in the meantime. The horse is in good form.”

Given his highly strung nature, and a tendency to pull like a train in his races, it is debatable whether a racecourse gallop will be enough to get the fizz out of My Tent Or Yours to enable him to settle in the Champion.

My tent Or Yours also has a worrying stat to overcome as winners of the Christmas Hurdle have a very poor record in the Cheltenham showpiece.

Only Kribensis in 1989/90 has completed the double since Ireland’s wonder mare Dawn Run in 1983/84, and those who have been beaten in the Christmas Hurdle have fared far better.

Rock On Ruby finished second before winning the Champion in 2012, and others to have gone on to
Cheltenham glory after getting turned over in the Grade 1 contest include Granville Again, Hors La Loi III, Punjabi and Binocular.

That will give plenty of hope to fans of The New One who finished runner-up to My Tent Or Yours in the Christmas Hurdle and is currently the 3/1 favourite with Coral for the Champion.