All ten entries have stood their ground to take part in the Grade 1 Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot on Saturday.
Already a three-time winner of the race – including when beating the reopposing Goshen twelve months ago – fan favourite Paisley Park will be hoping to join Baracouda as the most successful horse of the three-mile one-furlong Grade 1 prize.
Emma Lavelle's stable star will face nine rivals including 2021 hero Champ, who finished third in the contest last season. The Henderson-trained contender hasn't been seen since finishing a slightly disappointing fifth in the Grade 1 Liverpool Hurdle at Aintree in April.
Dan Skelton will be hoping his progressive mare West Balboa can take top ranks in the staying hurdle division, as she steps into Grade 1 company for the first time following a wide-margin victory in a conditions event at Aintree last month. The unexposed seven-year-old is now four from six over hurdles and currently tops the market at a general 2/1 with Paddy Power.
It's a race that has eluded champion trainer Paul Nicholls since Big Bucks landed the prize for three consecutive seasons between 2009 and 2011, but the Lambourn-based handler looks to have a particularly interesting candidate this year, with Blueking D'Oroux stepping up in trip on the back of a smooth success in the Grade 2 Coral Hurdle four weeks ago. Stablemate Red Risk will bid to give Bryony Frost a memorable Grade 1 winner as he attempts to reverse placings Botox Has, who got the better of him in the bet365 Hurdle at Wetherby last month.
Jeremy Scott's Dashel Drasher deservedly got back to winning ways when clinging on to beat Paisley Park in the Grade 2 Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury earlier this month. The ten-year-old is yet to score in Grade 1 company over hurdles but heads into the contest the highest-rated horse with an official rating of 159.
Crambo would have gone into many notebooks on the back of his eye-catching third in the Grade 3 Betfair Stayers' Handicap Hurdle at Haydock last month. The Fergal O'Brien team continues to fire in the winners of late and will surely be expecting a bold showing from their improving six-year-old, as the Sullivan Bloodstock Ltd & Chris Giles-owned runner bids to establish himself as the new kid on the block in the staying division.
Gowel Road completes the field of ten for Nigel Twiston-Davies, while elsewhere on the card eleven will go to post in the Betfair Exchange Trophy (Premier Handicap) at 3.35.
Updated odds following final declarations:
Howden Long Walk Hurdle
Paddy Power: 5-2 West Balboa, 3 Crambo, 5 Champ, 6 Paisley Park, 7 Dashel Drasher, 10 Botox Has, 20 Blueking D'Oroux, 25 Red Risk, 40 Gowel Road, 66 Goshen
Paddy Power spokesman Paul Binfield told Racing and Sports: "We've laid Crambo in both the shops and online so there's been a good spread of support around for him. Punters seemingly believe that he could be the new kid on the block in the staying hurdle division against more established performers like Champ and Paisley Park. West Balboa currently heads the market at the 5/2 mark as she too bids to establish herself at the top of the tree in the staying hurdle division following a facile victory at Aintree 42 days ago."
