Champion Hurdle 2027 Tips - Pre-season guide and selections
The article previews the 2027 Champion Hurdle, set for March 16th at Cheltenham, highlighting odds, major contenders, and expert insight. Lossiemouth, the 2026 Champion, dominates the early betting and is favored to win again if maintaining form. Most market challengers appear unlikely to threaten her dominance. However, Saratoga, an impressive juvenile, is recommended as an ante-post bet due to an open-looking division and his strong finish in the Fred Winter and Punchestown races. The key conclusion is that Lossiemouth is the clear favorite, but Saratoga represents the best outsider value.
- Pre-season guide and tips for the 2027 Champion Hurdle
- Lossiemouth is already 6/4 to retain her crown at the Cheltenham Festival
- Saratoga is our ante-post selection at 33/1
The opening day of the 2027 Cheltenham Festival will be headlined as usual by the Champion Hurdle, which will be run at 4:00pm on Tuesday, March 16th.
Here's our ante-post guide to the 2027 Champion Hurdle, featuring the early-season odds, a rundown of the leading contenders and our best ante-post betting tips.
2027 Champion Hurdle Odds
| Name | Odds |
|---|---|
| Lossiemouth | 6/4 |
| Mydaddypaddy | 7/1 |
| King Rasko Grey | 14/1 |
| Old Park Star | 16/1 |
| Idaho Sun | 16/1 |
| Narciso Has | 20/1 |
| Bar | 25/1 |
π The Defending Champion π
Lossiemouth obliterated her rivals to claim Champion Hurdle glory in 2026. Willie Mullins finally allowed his star mare to enter open company at the Festival, and Lossiemouth responded with a career-best performance, streaking six lengths clear of Brighterdaysahead and emphatically reversing the form of the Irish Champion Hurdle.
It was only the career-ending injury suffered by State Man that forced Mullins into running Lossiemouth in the Champion Hurdle. Willie had every intention of sending his seven-year-old back to the Mares' Hurdle, which she had won easily in the previous two seasons.
None of Willie's novices seemed like potential Champion Hurdlers last season, so I'd be surprised if Lossiemouth wasn't his number one for the race once again. If she turns up at Cheltenham in the same vein of form as last season, Lossiemouth will win again.
π The Young Pretender π
There's only one other contender sitting at shorter than 16/1 in the Champion Hurdle betting, and that's Mydaddypaddy. Dan Skelton's star found trouble in running when third in the Supreme, after which his trainer claimed that the Arkle would be the goal next season.
However, it seems that Skelton has had a change of heart over the summer. Mydaddypaddy will now go down the Champion Hurdle route, with Kabral Du Mathan likely to lead the stable's assault on the Arkle Challenge Trophy.
As Skelton has said, it'll do Mydaddypaddy no harm to spend another season over the smaller obstacles, and a campaign at the highest level would certainly toughen him up ahead of novice chasing in 2027/28. Yet I don't think there's much more improvement to come from Mydaddypaddy as a hurdler, and his chances of challenging Lossiemouth seem slim at best.
β Unlikely To Run β
Old Park Star and Sober Glory finished ahead of Mydaddypaddy in the Supreme, and both are set to go novice chasing. King Rasko Grey will attack the larger obstacles this season, and his stablemate Narciso Has seems set to utilise his age allowance over fences, as Majborough did two seasons ago.
Brighterdaysahead simply doesn't like Cheltenham, and I'd be surprised if she turned up in a Champion Hurdle again. Alexei seems unlikely to improve upon the fourth-place effort he recorded 12 months ago, and I can't see Golden Ace reproducing the heroics that saw her claim a fortuitous victory in this famous race two seasons back.
Like King Rasko Grey, the lightly raced Mighty Park will likely go novice chasing this term, as could Willie Mullins' new purchase Magnifico Conti, who runs in the Lossiemouth colours. Mullins will probably give Triumph Hurdle winner Apolon De Charnie a very light campaign, and while a tilt at the Champion Hurdle seems likely, odds of 66/1 illustrate his chances nicely.
π The Best Of The Rest π
Harry Fry will take Formby Novices' Hurdle winner Idaho Sun down the Champion Hurdle route, having missed the second half of last season with his Grade One winner. 2025 Supreme runner-up William Munny also endured injury problems last season, and Barry Connell is keen to give his hurdler a crack at the feature race on day one of the Cheltenham Festival.
Mange Tout and Saratoga ended their juvenile campaigns with Grade One victories, and both could head down the path to the Champion Hurdle. Winston Junior, Minella Study and Maestro Conti impressed at times during their juvenile campaigns. Proactif, Macho Man and Selma De Vary were leading juveniles for Willie Mullins last term, and all three may well end up in this Championship race at the 2027 Cheltenham Festival.
Sober won the Moscow Flyer for Mullins last season. Wilful won the County Hurdle for Jonjo and AJ O'Neill before giving a good account of himself at Punchestown. Stayers' Hurdle favourite The New Lion could also end up back in a Champion Hurdle if he fails to see out an extended trip or something goes amiss with Mydaddypaddy.
π΅ Verdict π΅
In truth, this year's Champion Hurdle looks like a penalty kick for the brilliant Lossiemouth. I understand that it's too early in the season for such a bold statement, but looking through the ante-post betting and the results from the big races last term, I can't see anything that would be good enough to stop her.
The only division from last season that could throw up a potential challenger is the juvenile crop. Four to five is a notoriously difficult transition for hurdlers, and five-year-olds have a poor record in the Champion Hurdle. Yet trends are there to be bucked, and there's a gap in the market that could be exploited.
The name that leaps off the page at a price is SARATOGA (33/1). Padraig Roche has clearly been told to get his grey into the Boodles, as Mark Walsh's mount showed only glimpses of talent in his first few starts over hurdles. Saratoga was then backed off the boards going into the Fred Winter, and Roche's youngster ran out a hugely impressive winner of that four-year-old handicap.
Saratoga then produced an even more impressive display in the Grade One Juvenile Hurdle at the Punchestown Festival. Walsh was forced to keep his mount wide, but it didn't make much of a difference. Saratoga hit the front travelling well on the approach to the second-last and comfortably held his rivals at bay without really being asked a serious question.
Roche seemed none the wiser about future plans when he spoke to the press at Punchestown, but I'd be surprised if they hadn't seriously considered a tilt at the Champion Hurdle since then. It's run over the same course and distance as the Fred Winter, after all, and given how weak the division looks on paper, I could see connections rolling the dice and throwing Saratoga in with the big boys (and girls).
Verdict
Saratoga is our ante-post tip for the 2027 Champion Hurdle.
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