Champ on the drift for festival trial as Henderson stablemate Birchdale shortens

Champ, the Grade 1 winner replaced in places as favourite for Saturday's Ballymore Novices' Hurdle by stablemate Birchdale, is still in contention for the Cheltenham contest, the pair's trainer Nicky Henderson said on Tuesday afternoon.

Named after legendary 20-time champion jump jockey Sir Anthony McCoy, Champ won the Challow Novices' Hurdle at Newbury over Christmas and Saturday's trial for the Grade 1 of the same name at the festival was thought to be on his agenda, but he was weak in the betting on Tuesday, when impressive Warwick winner Birchdale, who runs in the same JP McManus silks, was seemingly being supported.

However, Henderson, who has won the race in recent years with Aigle D'Or, Bobs Worth and Santini, said: "Champ or Birchdale will run. They're both owned by JP and in the same boat. They did a bit of work this morning and I'll talk to JP, but we'll run one of the two."

Reflecting on the change in prices, Paddy Power's spokesman Paul Binfield said: "Champ is 3-1 from 11-10 and Birchdale is 9-4 from 9-2, so we've obviously been laying Birchdale.

"We're only guessing, but the money would suggest that while McManus doesn't mind running two of his horses against each other, we think it is unlikely Henderson will do that with two in the same ownership.

"The cash indicates that runner is more likely to be Birchdale. We've also seen some support for some of the other horses and the reason for that possibly is that they would be shorter prices in the race if Champ was not a combatant."

Last week, Henderson had planned to run Sky Bet Supreme Novices' Hurdle favourite Angels Breath in a Grade 2 at Haydock, but – like some at the champion trainer's base – he was not quite right, so Mister Fisher stepped in as a substitute and duly struck to cement his Cheltenham credentials.

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