Cheltenham festival day one tips: Brighterdaysahead can upset Constitution Hill in Champion Hurdle

Constitution Hill has seen off every challenge with ease in winning all 10 of his races to date, but he could be facing his sternest opponent so far in Tuesday’s Champion Hurdle and Brighterdaysahead (4.00) can also boast the strongest recent piece of form in the field.

The Neville Hotels Hurdle at Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting was set up for Brighterdaysahead by a front-running stable companion, while State Man, the defending champion on Tuesday, was clearly not at his best and finished a long way behind Gordon Elliott’s mare.

Yet Brighterdaysahead still put a remarkable 30 lengths between herself and the runner-up, and did so in an exceptionally fast time under the conditions. Taking her 7lb mares’ allowance into account, Timeform’s ratings suggest that performance puts her just 3lb behind Constitution Hill’s best-ever run, in the Supreme Novice Hurdle at this meeting all of three years ago.

Constitution Hill is undoubtedly one of the greatest hurdlers of all time, but there may be much less between the market principals than the betting suggests and as a result, Brighterdaysahead looks seriously overpriced at around 9-4.

Cheltenham 1.20: Kopek Des Bordes is the first of four hot favourites in the opening day’s Grade One events and a repeat of his level of form at the Dublin Racing Festival in February should be enough to get the punters onto the front foot. The visual impression of his 13-length success was backed up by a very fast time and he has as much, if not more, scope for improvement as any of his rivals.

Cheltenham 2.00: The odds-on Majborough, last year’s Triumph winner, is top-rated on his winning Grade One form at Leopardstown in February but he took a while to warm to the task there and L’Eau Du Sud could prove a very tricky opponent. His jumping has been all but flawless in four starts this season and Majborough may need to be equally foot-perfect to prevail, which suggests Dan Skelton’s runner must the bet at around 4-1.

Cheltenham 2.40: Irish stables are 0-32 in this since 2016, a period when their runners have battered the domestic opposition elsewhere at the festival, but they have started to pepper the target over the last couple of years and Paul Gilligan’s novice Sequestered is a live contender at around 16-1. The seven-year-old was useful over hurdles but is already much better over fences and has acquitted himself very well in valuable big-field handicaps at Leopardstown on his last two start while also promising better still to come.

Cheltenham 3.20: A straightforward repeat of last year’s odds-on success looks on the cards for Lossiemouth after the decision to switch her from the Champion Hurdle.

Cheltenham 4.40: The up-and-coming James Owen stable could get a first festival win on the board here with Liam Swagger, who has already improved on his useful Flat form over hurdles and has a very workable mark after a light campaign with no run over jumps since December.

Cheltenham 5.20: Now Is The Hour could find plenty of improvement for this step up to a marathon trip and Gavin Cromwell’s record with runners at Cheltenham in general and the festival above all is exceptional.