Leading Stayers' Hurdle fancy Honesty Policy set to go straight to Cheltenham with ground too testing for planned warm-up

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Leading Stayers' Hurdle fancy Honesty Policy will head straight to the Cheltenham Festival after Gordon Elliott elected to swerve Sunday's Grade 2 William Hill Boyne Hurdle due to the testing ground at Navan.

Owned by JP McManus, Honesty Policy was one of the top staying novice hurdlers last season, winning three of his five starts, including the Grade 1 Mersey Novices' Hurdle at Aintree. He was a half-length runner-up to Jasmin De Vaux on his final start of the campaign at Punchestown.

The six-year-old took his first step outside novice company in the Grade 1 Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot in December and ran a promising race when staying on to be beaten a length and a half into third behind Impose Toi.

He hasn't been seen on the track since and was taken out at the declaration stage of the Boyne Hurdle before the meeting had to pass an inspection on Saturday afternoon. Elliott reports him in fine form, however, and the festival is the next target.

"I'd imagine Honesty Policy will go straight to Cheltenham now," he said. "I was keen to run him at Navan but the ground was too heavy and he's not the biggest horse in the world. We'll get a racecourse gallop into him somewhere beforehand."

Elliott holds a strong hand in the Stayers' Hurdle with the top two in the ante-post market. Teahupoo, who won the race in 2024 and finished runner-up to Bob Olinger last season, heads the betting as 7-4 favourite after he landed the seventh Grade 1 of his career with a hugely impressive seven-length success in the Christmas Hurdle at Leopardstown.

Honesty Policy is a best-priced 4-1 chance for Elliott and McManus, the same combination responsible for 2023 Stayers' Hurdle winner Sire Du Berlais.

Paddy Power Stayers' Hurdle (Cheltenham, March 12)
Paddy Power: 13-8 Teahupoo, 7-2 Honesty Policy, 5 Bob Olinger, 6 Kabral Du Mathan, Ma Shantou, 10 Ballyburn, Impose Toi, 16 Hewick, 20 bar.

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