Celestial Halo to put Champion Hurdle Credentials on the line

Celestial Halo kicked off the current campaign with an impressive 10-length verdict over Mamlook in the Grade Two Elite Hurdle at Wincanton on November 7. With all the various trials for the Champion Hurdle since then Celestial Halo's odds for the March feature on the opening day of the 2010 Cheltenham Festival have remained steady and is very much at the top end of the betting action.

Owner Andy Stewart is hoping that Celestial Halo can enhance his claims for more Festival glory with victory in the £150,000 Grade Two Boylesports.com International at Cheltenham on Saturday, December 12. The valuable contest is one of the leading trials for the showpiece two-mile hurdle at The Festival in March and the feature of the second day of the prestigious Boylesports International.

Stewart revealed today: “Celestial Halo is on course for the Boylesports.com International. We have been very pleased with him since Wincanton and I was surprised that he managed to clock such a fast time off top-weight there. The runner-up may have been out of the handicap but he looked well-treated based on his second on the Flat in the Cesarewitch.

“We just hope that there will be a bit of pace at Cheltenham and it is not falsely run like the Fighting Fifth Hurdle was on Saturday. Go Native is no slouch - he won the williamhill.com Supreme Novices Hurdle at The Festival - but I was very surprised that Binocular didn’t find anything on a track that should have been ideal for him. It was a bit of an upset but let’s hope that there isn’t another at Cheltenham.

“Punjabi beat us in the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle and he sets the standard for this season. It’s always a very big ask for some of the previous season’s novices to take on the big boys, as we found out with Celestial Halo at The Festival. We only went down by a neck but we were still beaten and Punjabi is still the champion.”

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