The Aintree Hurdle is a Grade 1 hurdle event over the intermediate trip and two and a half miles which has been won in recent years by a few seriously high class horses such as Buveur D’Air and Annie Power. The extra yardage in comparison to the Champion Hurdle the month before brings an element of stamina into the contest but it still requires a speedy type to come out on top. See our Aintree Hurdle tips here!
Buveur D’Air ✅✅❌✅
Apple’s Jade ✅✅✅✅
Supasundae ✅✅✅❌
The New One ❌✅❌✅
Old Guard ✅❌❌❌
Supasundae and Buveur D’Air both do well in the trends department but it is only the Gordon Elliott trained Apple’s Jade who fits all of our categories and if making the trip over she is of obvious interest.
The place to start is clearly with dual Champion Hurdle winner Buveur D’Air who romped home in this last year with My Tent Or Yours well beaten in second. He had looked invincible all season until Melon gave him a scare in the big one at Cheltenham but he battled well through ground he didn’t enjoy to get the job done regardless. He is the best hurdler in training at the moment and handles the trip so it will take a very good performance to beat him.
Apple’s Jade was a short-priced disappointment at Cheltenham but never looked quite right that day and stuck on pluckily to finish third regardless. Front runners struggled to see it out on the horrendous ground at the Festival and she both hung and jumped to her right under pressure which is slightly unusual for a normally very straightforward mare. She gets the mares’ allowance here and this is probably her ideal trip so she would be dangerous if travelling over especially as she put up arguably the most remarkable performance of her career when winning the Grade 1 Juvenile race here in 2016 by a ridiculous margin.
The other main challenger to Buveur D’Air has to be the Jessica Harrington trained Supasundae who was last seen finishing second to the classy Penhill in the Stayer’s Hurdle at the Festival. There were concerns about the trip and the ground for him before that race following his comfortable defeat of Faugheen in the Irish Champion Hurdle. This trip will suit him nicely as he is a horse with plenty of speed and he has high-class form at the meeting in the form of his second to Yanworth in the Liverpool Hurdle last year, he seems to have plenty going for him.
Both The New One and Old Guard look to have plenty on their plates here and will likely struggle. The former is an admirable performer and one of the few horses to have earned over £1 million in prize money but has struggled at the top level for a while now and was disappointing in the Stayer’s last time out with Supasundae well ahead of him. The latter is not quite a Grade 1 horse either but did it well when defeating Lil Rockerfeller last time in a Grade 2 at Fontwell and should run his race.