Go Native has a shot of landing the £1m WBX bonus by completing the Fighting Fifth/Christmas/Champion Hurdle hat-trick, but he has plenty of challengers in a wide-open race.
The Favourite
A top novice last season when beating Medermit to land the Supreme Novices' Hurdle here, Go Native (9/2 Ladbrokes) has quickly made the transition to the top of the hurdling tree with wins in the Fighting Fifth at Newcastle (a race won by last year's Champion Hurdle winner Punjabi) and the Christmas Hurdle, where he hung on narrowly from the fast-finishing Starluck after idling on the run-in. He's clearly got his quirks, like many good horses, and will have to be produced late by Paul Carberry (no better jockey for that!), but his turn of foot could be decisive in a year that sees a large chunk of the contenders more blessed with stamina than speed. Good ground is ideal for him so his backers will be rubbinng their hands at the news the track has not been re-watered since last week.
The Dangers
Where to start? Last year's winner Punjabi (15/2 Blue Square) and runner-up Celestial Halo (9/1 general) have not much done much to advertise the form since. New kid on the block and last year's Triumph winner Zaynar blotted his copybook last time out at Kelso when turned over at 1/14 and is now as big as 10/1 with Stan James. He's much better than that and cheekpieces will be re-applied for the first time since last year's festival, which might buck his ideas up.
Medermit has been well-backed ante post (small interest myself at 16/1) after beating Punjabi at Haydock and his trainer Alan King is talking up his chances, although he's now into single figures (9/1 Coral). If you fancy him, you've also got to like Khyber Kim (8/1 Coral) who has twice beaten Medermit into third this season - the Greatwood Hurdle in November and back here in the Boylesports.com Hurdle the following month. He hasn't run since but goes well fresh and needs only to find a little more to win. Starluck (14/1 Victor Chandler) was also an easy winner here in October so cannot be left out of the equation in a truly wide-open affair.
Solwhit was only declared a definite runner on Sunday after coming through a course of antibiotics. He will do well to win after such a troubled preparation. Similarly, Binocular needeed the vet's attention last week to make the line up and, besides, wasn't quite good enough in this race last year.
Longshot
It's difficult to envisage any of the outsiders muscling their way into the frame.
Key Stat
Festival form is king as Punjabi last year became only the third winner in the past 20 years to have been to the festival before without being successful.
Verdict
Of the four showcase races, this has become the hardest to call with several what you might call surprise winners since the days of Istabraq. That said, the winner will surely come from the top half dozen in the betting and, of these, the one that still represents a bit of value is KHYBER KIM at 8/1 with Coral. He's undoubtedly quirky but looks to have turned over a new leaf this season and has only to reproduce the form he showed when winning here in December to be bang in the mix. That's no given as his March-April form figures are '0400', but his trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies is sounding even more bullish than normal and he's worth chancing at the odds. Go Native scares me to death, though, and looks a back-to-lay proposition at 7/2 on Betfair as he'll almost certainly be trading much shorter at some point.