Menorah Racehorse Profile

The Champion Hurdle is arguably the biggest race on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival with a huge prize purse of just under half a million pounds made available. This makes it one of the most watched races of the whole four day event.

The second favourite for the Champion Hurdle this year is a six-year-old Irish Bay Gelding called Menorah. The horse is trained by the world famous Philip Hobbs and was bred from King's Theatre (Ireland) and Maid For Adventure (Ireland).

Menorah has an impressive career win percentage of 66 per cent and is currently a best price of 5/1 to sprint to victory at Cheltenham. This price is chopping and changing regularly as there seems to be little difference between this horse and the current favourite Binocular.

Menorah has always run middle distance races ranging from 16 furlongs to 19 furlongs. The horse’s debut came in August 2009 at Naas in a field of 17 over 19 furlongs. The horse came from a very good background and had a solid weight so started the race at evens. The debut was impressive as the horse was held up to win by one length inside the final furlong.

Hobbs clearly knew that Menorah was meant to race over this sort of distance and a second win followed just two months later over 16 furlongs at Warwick. Two significant changes were made as the horse’s weight had dropped by nearly a stone. Richard Johnson also took over as the regular jockey.

The racing style for the second race was virtually the same as the first. Johnson held the horse up to claw back the four leaders inside the final few furlongs. The stamina Menorah showed was superb to stay on after nearly falling at the final jump of the race.

Menorah’s third race at Doncaster saw the horse pushed into second due to a superb race by Bobby Ewing over 19 furlongs. Hobbs quickly switched the horse’s running distance back to 16 furlongs and three wins and two second place finishes followed over the next five outings.

Menorah’s last race came over 17 furlongs in a field of nine at the end of December last year on the Cheltenham track. Menorah and Johnson demonstrated their brilliant relationship perfectly as the horse responded to being pushed on inside the final two furlongs. Menorah romped to a four length win and seemed to increase in speed when the rest of the field was tiring.

Hobbs has not said or shown any signs that Menorah will run again before the Cheltenham Festival. There are no declared future entries and it’s easy to understand why. The horse is used to running in a certain style over a certain distance and with Johnson as the jockey.

There is no sense at all in Hobbs taking a risk with the horse in another race because the days of experimentation are long gone. Menorah will push Binocular all the way to the line.