Stayers' Hurdle Antepost Tips: Henderson's Improver Can Make Thursday Lucky

The Stayers' Hurdle is the feature race on day three at the Cheltenham Festival and in 2025 Teahupoo is once again heading to the race as a short priced favourite. The defending champion has plenty more on his plate this season, however, and Billy Grimshaw thinks there is one challenger in particular who will give him most trouble...

In the build up to the Cheltenham Festival, which let's be honest begins once they cross the line in the Martin Pipe the previous year, narratives often develop and unravel as the season goes on, In the immediate aftermath of last season's Stayers' Hurdle, when the 2023 third Teahupoo cruised to glory at the age of just seven, the common wisdom was we were looking at the next Big Bucks who could run up a sequence in this race due to his talent, age and paucity of  potential challengers. Watching back the race, he did travel like the winner all the way throughout but there is enough against him to make it worthwhile taking him on in my view.

Firstly, the ground last year was tailormade for this horse who is known to much prefer when the mud is flying. It has been soft and heavy at the past few Cheltenham Festivals but there's no guarantee he will have the weather gods onside again in 2025 and if the ground comes up on the quicker side it'd be a surprise were he not to take a marked walk in the market. Another stone to throw at his 2025 chance is his poor preparation. For all that Gordon Elliott insisted he was okay with the run when dismissed readily by Lossiemouth in the Hatton's Grace, it was a lacklustre display and he's not been seen since. The horse is best fresh, but that as his only run in season 2024/25 does not scream out Cheltenham banker.

The final reason I am so keen on taking him on, which is not something I anticipated doing in the immediate aftermath of the 2024 Festival, is that there seems to be a fair bunch of new arrivals on the scene who should give him much more of a challenge than the heavily weighted to the older side field he dispatched in 2024. Home By The Lee has looked better than ever in 2024/25 and will surely be better than the run he produced for third last season, when jumping markedly right on a number of occasions yet still only finishing six lengths back. He seems to have finally had some of his quirks ironed out by Joseph O'Brien and particularly if the ground is quick I'd expect him to get much closer to last year's champion and maybe even reverse the form.

Langer Dan will take his chance here despite running like a drain all season, as the controversial double Coral Cup hero only seems to show his true running once February ends. If he produces efforts up to the standard of his Cheltenham wins or his close defeat in the Liverpool Hurdle he will be in the shakeup and it would be hilarious to see the meltdown from many who have called Dan Skelton all sorts of names for his handling of this horse if he were to come home in front off the back of another diabolical season in terms of runs and finishing positions. I can't in good faith tip him up, however, and even at peak form he may have a job on to beat my pick LUCKY PLACE.

Nicky Henderson is more synonymous with the flashy speedy types than staying grinders, but he has won the Stayers' Hurdle a couple of times in his career and this lad looks his best chance since the turn of the millennium. He has not stopped improving all season and although Langer Dan had his measure when giving him weight and a beating in last year's Coral Cup, I'm fairly sure Lucky Place is a stone better horse this campaign judging by his wins both in the Ascot Hurdle and here on New Year's Day in the Relkeel.

That latest piece of form has been boosted since with second Gowel Road, who could also run here and would be a pace angle, coming out and winning the Cleeve and I think the test that this year's Srayers' Hurdle looks likely to be will suit Henderson's strong traveller down to the ground. He rates a decent value bet now at double figures and I expect him to be closer to 6/1 on the day, especially if Henderson has had a good week up to this point. The Wallpark would be interesting if he came here but may be sent to the Pertemps to run off top weight, while Monmiral (last season's Pertemps winner) ran well in the Cleeve behind Gowel Road and would have a chance if he repeated his run in the Pertemps last year over the same C&D. He's not one to dismiss at massive odds, but Lucky Place is my idea of the most likely winner unless the ground comes up a bog again and so he's a knocking antepost bet.