Epatante's Champion Hurdle success masks worrying lack of depth in division

Talk of a unusually weak two-mile hurdling division rather tailed off after Epatante breezed to the Champion Hurdle, but she did not uproot the underlying problem and these figures are a stark reminder of that.

With her sex allowance factored in, Epatante is effectively 169 and roughly where an average Champion Hurdle winner tends to be. Considering that she would be 5lb clear of anything else if this weight-for-sex were factored in highlights a worrying lack of depth in the hurdles division as a whole.

In the 20 years of Anglo-Irish Classifications, there has never been a champion two-mile hurdler rated lower than Sharjah on 164. There has also never been a lower rating for the top staying hurdler than Paisley Park's 162 (he retains his title in that division on the basis of If The Cap Fits posting an identical figure over shorter).