It’s the final race of the season for the speediest hurdlers in the game – and the 2021 Paddy Power Champion Hurdle looks set to be an absolute cracker. Paddy’s even dangled the carrot of a £100K bonus in front of the British runners to win the race!

The Paddy Power Champion Hurdle typically features horses that ran in the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. The upcoming race will be no different with Honeysuckle looking to follow up her Prestbury Park triumph and the likes of Epatante, Sharjah, Goshen and Aspire Tower among the other 12 entries.

Yes, he’s actually a real person. Paddy is a spokesman for the eponymous company, and consequently spends the majority of his time playing Fortnite at his desk while on the phone to various media outlets. Paddy Power was founded in 1988, by the merger of the forty shops of three Irish bookmakers: Stewart Kenny, David Power, and John Corcoran. Stewart Kenny and Vincent O'Reilly had sold Kenny O'Reilly bookmakers to Coral in 1986, and then opened ten shops of their own by 1988; Kenny was group CEO from 1988 to 2002, and chairman from 2002 to 2003.

Faugheen – ridden by our very own Ruby Walsh – was the most recent horse to do the double way back in 2015 while the last renewal of this race in 2019 was won by the popular Buveur D’Air.

It’s the feature race on the fourth and penultimate day of the 2021 Punchestown Festival and a cool €147,500 is up for the grabs for connections of the winning horse – more than enough for a round of Guinnesses to celebrate.

PADDY POWER CHAMPION HURDLE ENTRIES AND RUNNERS

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Abacadabras 7 12-0 Gigginstown House Stud Mrs Denise Foster

Aspire Tower 5 12-0 Robcour Henry de Bromhead

Buveur D’Air 10 12-0 John P McManus Nicky Henderson

Darver Star 9 12-0 SSP Number Twentytwo Syndicate Gavin Cromwell

Goshen 5 12-0 Steven Packham Gary Moore

James Du Berlais 5 12-0 Simon Munir & Isaac Souede W P Mullins

Jason The Militant 7 12-0 Peter Michael Henry de Bromhead

Klassical Dream 7 12-0 Mrs Joanne Coleman W P Mullins

Saldier 7 12-0 Mrs S Ricci W P Mullins

Sharjah 8 12-0 Mrs S Ricci W P Mullins

Silver Streak 8 12-0 L Fell Evan Williams

Epatante 7 11-7 John P McManus Nicky Henderson

Honeysuckle 7 11-7 Kenneth Alexander Henry de Bromhead

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PADDY POWER CHAMPION HURDLE ANTEPOST BETTING

Honeysuckle – 4/6
Epatante – 5/1
Goshen – 8/1
Sharjah – 9/1
Aspire Tower – 10/1
Abacadabras – 10/1
Jason The Militant – 12/1
James Du Berlais – 25/1
Buveur D’Air – 25/1
Silver Streak – 25/1
Darver Star – 33/1
Klassical Dream – 33/1
Saldier – 50/1

Click her for Paddy Power’s antepost market for the Paddy Power Champion Hurdle.

*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.

PADDY POWER CHAMPION HURDLE ANTEPOST TIPS

Paddy Power ambassador Ruby Walsh and trader Frank Hickey ran the rule over the field on the latest episode of our From The Horse’s Mouth podcast.

Ruby Walsh: “HONEYSUCKLE is definitely the best two-miler in training, that’s for sure! She was really good at Cheltenham and travelled well. You’re looking for something to beat her but what is it? She hasn’t run at the track? I’m not sure that’ll do it.

“She sets the standard, it’ll be beautiful ground and I fancy her here. Everything will play into her hands, I don’t see where it turns around on her.”

Frank Hickey: “ABACADABRAS fell in the Champion Hurdle and I liked the way he went about his business in the Aintree Hurdle and actually was quite resolute in the finish which I wasn’t sure he had in him. Drying ground will suit him and he did win the Morgiana Hurdle here earlier in the season.

“I thought ASPIRE TOWER ran a cracker in the Champion Hurdle when being very weak in the market. That was his first start since Christmas and he went off 33/1. He looked a big danger approaching the second last flight and hit 3/1 in the run but he made a mistake and lost momentum and when the others quickened up, he was a little flat-footed before staying on again to finish fourth.

“He is one-from-five going left handed and two-from-two running right handed. Might be nothing but he did hammer Sea Ducor in his maiden hurdle here too. I’ll probably have an each-way bet on Aspire Tower if he is 12/1 or over and will play him in the ‘Without Honeysuckle’ markets as well.”

*Odds quoted on the widget are Future Racing/Antepost prices which means that if your selection does not run in the race for whatever reason, you will lose your stake under traditional antepost rules

FULL PREVIEW: RUBY WALSH AND FRANK HICKEY’S PUNCHESTOWN CHAMPION HURDLE ANTEPOST BETS

READ MORE ON THE PUNCHESTOWN FESTIVAL

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Following the overwhelming response from our first two PP Race Nights, we’ve set-up a third event for the end of this week – but this time we’ve rolled out the big guns!

Each race will have exclusive commentary from a number of our friends around the sporting world including: Mr Racing himself Matt Chapman, former top jock & now TV pundit Jason Weaver, Hardy Buck and Shane Lowry’s self-proclaimed caddie Owen Colgan, Mr Paddy Power Social Steven Quick, the best Jerry Hannon impersonator Ryan McCue and host of From The Horse’s Mouth Podcast Tom Nugent.

Download your Friday Night Races pack here

Paddy has once again teamed up with The Fundraising Events Group to relieve the lockdown tedium with a FREE night at the races – all conducted from an appropriate social distance, naturally.

The race night will work the same way as always, except for even more improvements we’ve made after listening to your feedback.

Did you hear the good news? The PP Race Night is BACK – this Friday at 9pm. Find our more in the video.

More details available in the blog: https://t.co/G8aVlQLp8bpic.twitter.com/fAMvU4es7t

— Paddy Power (@paddypower) May 26, 2020

For this Friday’s big night in we’ve got:

• Paddy Power exclusive commentary for all races
• Spreadsheets that can cater for up to 25 people
• Individual race cards for each race – which are easily shareable on WhatsApp
• A start time of 9pm with a finish at around 10.30pm
• All races to be streamed on Twitter
• Silks now added to each racecard so you can easily spot your horse at the back
• Stacks of free bets and prizes up for grabs by simply tweeting your picture using the hashtag #PPRaceNight

Simply click here to download Paddy’s Race Night, round up your online race-going chums for a video call, and log on to our Twitter page @PaddyPower for 9pm this Friday when we’ll stream the first of six races for you to have a virtual punt on.

The pack includes:

• Your ‘How to guide’
• #PPRaceNight Racecard
• Option A – Leaderboard Points System Excel
• Option B – Tote System Excel

We are supplying two different options for your race night – a Leaderboard Points System or a Tote System if you wish to place a few small bets between yourselves.

Download your Friday Night Races pack here

For the Leaderboard system, everyone should submit their picks before each race – privately to avoid any shenanigans – with 5 points awarded for a winner and 2 for second and third. Our handy Leaderboard sheet included in the download pack will do the sums and whoever has the most points after the six races wins!

For the Tote System, simply pick the horses you’d like to bet on – up to 5 each per race – and we recommend £/€2 per pick but you can change this yourselves if you wish. The pot is then split for each race between whoever picked the winner. The sheet provided does all the calculations for you too – it’s easy.

All the races are recorded contests from way back when, so there’s not much chance any of your virtual race night goers will have a head-start on who is winning and losing.

Of course, you don’t have to bet anything if you don’t want to, this is just for fun – though if you do decide to lay some shekels down we’re recommending you give half the winnings to a good cause.

Here’s the running order for the night’s races:

• Race 1 – 9pm – The 90’s Disco Derby
• Race 2 – 9.15pm – The Wrestling Finishing Moves Hurdle
• Race 3 – 9.30pm – The Internet’s Best Memes Memorial
• Race 4 – 9.45pm – The 90’s TV Shows Trophy
• Race 5 – 10pm – The Stupid Horse Names Derby
• Race 6 – 10.15pm – The Best Dublin Pubs Chase

So get downloading now and get ready to turn your living room the winners’ enclosure this Friday night.

Races will stream every 15 minutes from 9pm on the @PaddyPower Twitter account. Don’t forget to tweet us your pictures for the chance to win some prizes using the hashtag #PPRaceNight.

Click here for everything you need to set up your race night from home. Be lucky!

Download your Friday Night Races pack here