Champion Hurdle alert: amazing Honeysuckle 'could still be improving'

Newcastle's Grade 1 Betfair Fighting Fifth Hurdle featured the best of the British from this year's Champion Hurdle, the season's leading two-mile hurdler and last season's highest-rated juvenile.

Even so, it was perhaps optimistic to think the race would produce a winning performance at a level associated with a Champion Hurdle winner and, despite a thrilling finish, the RPR returned by dead-heaters Not So Sleepy (160) and Epatante (160), whose rating includes her 7lb mares' allowance, falls 10lb short of an average Champion Hurdle winner.

With her mares' allowance factored in, there is nothing average about Honeysuckle (173) and she remains a very warm order to retain her crown.