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| SUPER-FLY - Hurricane Fly left Oscars Well & Thousand Stars in his dust on Sunday. |
At Cheltenham on Saturday Big Buck’s notched up his 15th straight win and although there was an ever so brief moment where he looked like he may have to work a bit to do it, it was never really in doubt and he ran out an impressive winner yet again.
He looks absolutely unstoppable now in his bid to win his 4th straight World Hurdle with Oscar Whisky, a horse we’ll talk about in more detail in a minute, the only real horse anyone could even begin to suggest was a challenger. Dynaste who chased him home, and briefly looked like he could be a real adversary, lost nothing in defeat and the riding tactics definitely worked better than they had in the Long Walk and he must be considered a likely candidate to fill the placings at the festival.
Elsewhere on trials day at Cheltenham, the Triumph Hurdle market was further muddied by the controversy in the first race on the card as Pearl Swan & Grumeti had placings reversed in the stewards room, handing the race to the latter. Baby Mix’s flop in that same race also saw the odds about that horse take a massive tumble for the final day of the festivals opener. Grumeti still looks like the one you would want to be on to me.
The Argento disappointed as a Gold Cup Trial yet again as all the big guns flopped – Captain Chris never looked comfortable and was pulled up without completing a circuit. Diamond Harry was reportedly found to have breathing trouble and will now have a wind op to try and get his ailing career back on track and Time For Rupert is certainly starting to look more like a horse for Aintree than the Gold Cup. This left the consistent course specialist Midnight Chase to take the honours and he must be a solid each way shout for the festival showpiece now.
Up at Doncaster on Saturday the Skybet Chase gave more of an insight to the Grand National than Cheltenham but the 3-horse Lightning Novice’s Chase showed us that Menorah’s jumping needs to be improved quite considerably if he’s to ever been taken seriously over fences whilst Kid Cassidy put a marker down as a potential Arkle contender, though with stablemate Sprinter Sacre currently at the head of that market he may end up in the festival closing Grand Annual.
In Ireland on Sunday, another defending champ returned under Ruby Walsh and visually was even more impressive than Big Buck’s. Hurricane Fly ended up drifting in to the incredible price of 4/5 on and obliged in imperious style. Any doubts over his well-being heading towards Cheltenham were blown away, as were the 4 rivals he gave a good-hiding to, including the previously well-fancied Unaccompanied whose bubble was well and truly burst, although the ground has to be factored in to her lacklustre display.
Elsewhere on that card in Ireland Flemenstar turned in a fantastic performance that was largely overlooked due The Fly’s exploits when winning the Irish Arkle, however with no entries at the festival, it means that we won’t get to see him mix it with the best this country has to offer any time soon.
Later on in the day, a horse that should run at Cheltenham Boston Bob put up a gutsy display in the novice hurdle carrying a penalty on horrendous ground to land the spoils and announce himself as a live contender for the Neptune.
Looking ahead to this weekend, on Saturday we have a good card from Sandown that should see Binocular look to build on his Christmas Hurdle success in the first on the card. Although, also of interest lower down is his old rival Starluck back over hurdles for his new trainer after last being seen chasing (Starluck also has an entry in the Welsh Champion Hurdle at Ffos Las).
Later on in the card we get the return of Burton Port, off the track through injury since splitting Diamond Harry & Denman in the 2010 Hennessy. This should be informative as to whether or not that time off has had an adverse effect on a horse that finished in front of Long Run in the 2010 RSA and clearly has a lot of ability.
At the aforementioned Ffos Las meeting, the only horse people seem to think may even have a chance of getting near Big Buck’s in the World Hurdle Oscar Whisky is back at 2 miles again for the Welsh Champion Hurdle, a race he won last year and obviously has a personal appeal to connections as owner Dai Walters is behind the course as well.
He should win this easily, but it won’t give us much idea of how he’ll fare against the champ; however a display akin to Hurricane Fly may just connections to aim him at the Champion Hurdle instead, which I personally think he should be going for anyway.
Later on in the West Wales National I really fancy Rey Nacarado to notch up another win, this horse jumps and stays and has solid form with some good horses.
In Ireland, at Punchestown on Sunday we get the rematch between Sizing Europe & Big Zeb – the last 2 winners of the Champion Chase.
Big Zeb is currently the odds on favourite and does tend to seem to have the beating of the reigning champ in Ireland; come the festival though I’d fancy those odds to be very different…
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