Three key questions to be answered on Kempton's Boxing Day card

Which way will the latest clash between Champ and Paisley Park go?

The rescheduled Long Walk Hurdle adds a fourth Grade 1 to Kempton’s Boxing Day card after the weather put paid to Ascot the previous weekend. The venue might be different, therefore, but the key players are the same as Champ and Paisley Park go head to head for the fifth time in just over a year. They first met in last season’s Long Walk where Champ made a successful return to hurdling after two seasons over fences.

With former dual winner Paisley Park beaten more than five lengths back in third, Champ looked all set to take charge in the staying hurdle division but Paisley Park soon showed he was no back number in the following month’s Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham where, in a race that put a premium on stamina, Paisley Park stayed on best to beat Champ by three and a quarter lengths to win it for a third time.

Both horses had to give best in the Stayers’ Hurdle back at Cheltenham won by Flooring Porter from the Long Walk runner-up Thyme Hill, but Paisley Park failed by just a nose to snatch second and Champ was only just over a length behind him in fourth.

The latest meeting between Champ and Paisley Park was their closest encounter yet which only adds to the intrigue of their next meeting on Boxing Day. With both ten-year-olds having their first starts since the spring, the pair served up a treat in Newbury’s Long Distance Hurdle last month in which they finished a long way clear of the rest, Champ going a good gallop in front which should have set things up nicely for the patiently-ridden Paisley Park but, despite keeping on well, he couldn’t quite overhaul the game Champ who held on by a neck.

Whilst Champ and Paisley Park are the two established stayers in the field, the mare Miranda was a course-and-distance winner last time, while Goshen steps up in trip after winning his last three starts over hurdles and Not So Sleepy is another trying three miles for the first time.

Is Constitution Hill a Boxing Day banker?

Unbeaten in four starts over hurdles which have been enough to convince most observers that he’s the best hurdler we’ve seen for years, Constitution Hill has a stone in hand of his closest rival on Timeform ratings, his stable-companion Epatante, the former Champion Hurdle winner who won her second Christmas Hurdle twelve months ago.

But the way Constitution Hill dealt with Epatante in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle last month suggests he has little to fear from her again. Quickening clear after the third last after lobbing along in the lead, Constitution Hill pinged the final two flights and sauntered clear to win by a dozen lengths.

Constitution Hill’s first two wins last season, both of them impressive, had come in the mud at Sandown but less testing conditions since in the Supreme at Cheltenham and in the Fighting Fifth have revealed the full extent of what makes Constitution Hill every inch a future Champion Hurdler. Kempton will be the sharpest track that he’s been asked to perform on but his Newcastle victory was characterised by a high cruising speed and electric jumping which will be even more valuable assets here.

Constitution Hill is set to go off at even shorter odds than Buveur d’Air, another of Nicky Henderson’s Christmas Hurdle winners who was a 2/11-shot when accounting for three rivals in 2017. The Willie Mullins-trained Faugheen landed odds of 4/11 and 1/4 for his two wins in 2014 and 2015 but the Christmas Hurdle has also delivered some nasty surprises to those taking very short odds about a Henderson-trained favourite in recent seasons.

Buveur d’Air’s bid to follow up in 2018 ended in a short-head defeat to stablemate Verdana Blue when sent off at 1/4, while in between her two wins, Epatante was turned over at odds of 1/5 in 2020 by Silver Streak whom she’d beaten impressively the year before.

All things being equal, however, Constitution Hill should prove much too good for Epatante and his three other rivals Sceau Royal, Metier and Highway One O One.

Who will prove best among last season’s top novices in the King George?

Bravemansgame, Ahoy Senor and L’Homme Presse have come against each other several times over the last twelve months, with the trio proving the best staying novice chasers in Britain last season, and all three meet again in the King George VI Chase.

Each brings a different profile to Kempton; Bravemansgame’s impressive jumping has contributed to a record of solid achievement over fences so far, things have not always gone so smoothly for Ahoy Senor who has shown an abundance of raw talent nonetheless, while L’Homme Presse, who started from a lower base over hurdles than either of that pair, just keeps getting better over fences.

Ahoy Senor beat Bravemansgame when they first met in the Sefton Novices’ Hurdle at the 2021 Grand National meeting but it was a different story on last year’s Boxing Day card at Kempton where Bravemansgame’s more polished jumping, coupled with having more pace in the closing stages, enabled him to get the upper hand in the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase.

Bravemansgame impressed with the way he both travelled and jumped on his latest start in the Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby where again Ahoy Senor’s jumping let him down as he trailed home last of the five runners.

But the front-running Ahoy Senor has run a much better race since when third in the Many Clouds Chase at Aintree, a track he clearly excels at as he also won the Mildmay Novices’ Chase there with a thoroughly convincing success in April, though it was plain that neither L’Homme Presse nor Bravemansgame were anywhere near their best on that occasion, finishing well held as they filled the last two places in the four-runner field.

In fact, that’s the only defeat that either Bravemansgame or L’Homme Presse has suffered over fences so far and, like Bravemansgame, L’Homme Presse put that setback firmly behind him when making a successful reappearance this season, carrying 12-0 to victory in the Rehearsal Chase at Newcastle with a top-class effort that’s his best yet over fences.

An assured jumper, L’Homme Presse’s five wins over fences last term all came on ground softer than good, notably when beating Ahoy Senor three and a half lengths in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase in deteriorating conditions at the Cheltenham Festival, but he had no problem handling better ground at Newcastle.

Bravemansgame was visually impressive when beating another King George contender, Eldorado Allen, at Wetherby and is respected given trainer Paul Nicholls’ record in the race and his own win on this card last year, but L’Homme Presse took his form up a notch at Newcastle last month and may not have finished improving yet.

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