'The British might pack a greater punch this year' - Graeme Rodway analyses the Cheltenham handicap hurdles

Whenever punters look to the handicaps at Cheltenham we search for two things. It’s either the handicap plot who has been trained with one race in mind all season or the rapid improver that may turn into a Grade 1 horse in time. There have been examples of both in recent years.

Who could forget the new Champion Hurdle favourite State Man winning the County Hurdle two years ago? He was the very definition of a Grade 1 horse in a handicap, but there has been a move to stop that type of horse getting in nowadays, so maybe there won’t be another.

Novice and juvenile hurdlers have been required to run a minimum of four times before competing in Class 1 or Class 2 handicap hurdles in recent seasons. State Man had run only three times over hurdles before his County win and he had failed to complete in one of them.