Big-race analysis: wide-open Stayers' Hurdle lives up to its reputation for consistent unpredictability

With the greatest respect to the breeders of those contesting the Stayers’ Hurdle, Ted Walsh’s blunt assertion a few years ago that “nobody gets up in the morning with the aim of breeding a Stayers’ Hurdle winner” is probably on the money.

The remark chimes perfectly with the perception that the Stayers’ Hurdle has long been regarded as the black sheep in a family of four championship races at Cheltenham. Even the Ryanair Chase, now the most valuable prize on day three of the festival, is pressing it for Thursday favouritism.

A glass-half-full observer might argue we now have five championship races at the meeting, but something the Stayers’ has over the Ryanair and the other showpiece events is consistent unpredictability. It usually ranks highly on Thursday’s seven-course menu for betting opportunities and the fact the average Ryanair winning SP over the past decade was just 9-2 – a figure boosted by Uxizandre's 16-1 victory in 2015 – compared with 12-1 in the Stayers’, attests to that.