Willie Mullins aces Impaire Et Passe and State Man to stay over hurdles with Constitution Hill's Champion crown the target

The news that Constitution Hill would remain over hurdles this season may have been branded boring by many, but there might be nothing boring about the 2024 Champion Hurdle after Willie Mullins said neither Impaire Et Passe nor State Man would be going chasing and both would be challenging for his crown next March. 

Mullins is responsible for six of the top nine in the betting for the Champion Hurdle with the sponsors Unibet, and the revelation that Impaire Et Passe is set to stay over hurdles means Constitution Hill could have a serious rival in his quest for back-to-back Champion Hurdles. Unibet make the brilliant Ballymore winner 7-2 second favourite, but he is available at 7-1 with Paddy Power. 

Impaire Et Passe is unbeaten, winning a bumper in France on his sole start for Yannick Fouin and all four of his races over hurdles for Mullins. He was a stylish six-and-a-half-length winner of the Ballymore Novices' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, form that was franked afterwards when the runner-up Gaelic Warrior won a Grade 1 impressively at Punchestown.