Cheltenham: Triumph Hurdle

The Triumph Hurdle over 2 miles 1 furlong at 14.30 CET, is the traditional opening race of Cheltenham´s final day and is the unofficial championship for 4yo hurdlers. It is also a race that has often thrown up surpising result and favourites have a poor record here, so punters should be cautious. The four faviurites are all trained in Britasin: the unbeaten Starluck (Alan Fleming/ Timmy Murphy), Master of Arts (David Pipe/ Tom Scudamore), Zaynar (Nicy Henderson/ Barry Geraghty) and Alan King´s Walkon (Robert Thornton), wose only defeat came at the hands of Zaynar, whom he now meets on better terms. In view of his trainer´s excellent recrd in thius event, Walkon is iur tentative choice, but almost anything is possible here, and the strong Irish challenge, headed by Ebadiyan (Oliver Brady/ John Cullen) and Lethal Weapon (Christy Roche/ Tony McCoy) - another unbeaten runner- cannot be lightly discarded.