Verdana Blue still on course for Champion Hurdle despite all-weather defeat

Verdana Blue remains on course to run in the Unibet Champion Hurdle despite her odds-on defeat on the Flat at Kempton on Wednesday evening.

Nicky Henderson was far from despondent after the Christmas Hurdle winner could not reel in the enterprisingly-ridden Gumball in the 1m4f novice contest.

"I said before the race Gumball was a good front-runner over hurdles and wouldn't be a pushover," claimed Henderson before heading to an evening at the House Of Lords.

"She will still run in the Champion Hurdle as long as it stays dry," he added. "The trouble is we are trying to do two things at once."

This was reference to Verdana Blue also having the all-weather championships on her horizon a month after Cheltenham but with another run needed to qualify for the stayers' final.

Betway eased Verdana Blue to 10 from 8 for the Champion Hurdle which still leaves her fourth favourite behind her Christmas Hurdle victim Buveur D'Air.

Gumball shortened to 16 from 25 with Betway for the Randox Health County Hurdle although the owner's representatives were talking about staying on the Flat with the five-year-old, who was pulled up in last year's Triumph before running second to We Have A Dream in the Grade 1 juvenile hurdle at Aintree.

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