Weekend Racing Review/Preview

SUPER-FLY - Hurricane Fly left Oscars Well
& Thousand Stars in his dust on Sunday.

Last weekend was all about 2 defending champions – Big Buck’s & Hurricane Fly.

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.

Weekend Racing - First Look

Crus Missile - Exciting novice Grands Crus is being
aimed at the Argento Chase at Cheltenham on Saturday.

Monday means the entries for Saturday’s Racing are revealed, and with a huge weekend ahead of us, it’d be wrong not to take a quick look at the mouth-watering clashes that potentially lie in front of us.

The two big meetings this Saturday originate from Cheltenham and Doncaster and it’s down at Prestbury Park where plenty of festival pointers will undoubtedly be picked up at the weekend.

The opening race, the Triumph Hurdle Trial, could see the three market leaders for that race square off against each other as Baby Mix, Hinterland and Grumeti are all slated to take part at this stage.

It’s later on in the card though where things get really tasty as the Argento looks set to be a real humdinger this year. My Gold Cup tip Grands Crus potentially faces the real acid test of his claims as he looks set to take on his elders over fences for the first time, but he loves Cheltenham (he won the Cleeve on this card last year) and travelled supremely well in the Feltham at Kempton on Boxing Day – if he wins here I don’t see any way that the Pipes can’t not run him in the Gold Cup.

Victor Chandler Chase, Haydock & Countdown to Cheltenham - The Big Punt

The Big Punt podcast with myself and Sam Brydges is back for 2012!

The first instalment of the New Year focuses on this weekend’s big race – the 25th Anniversary of the Victor Chandler Chase at Ascot, as well as looking at two races at Haydock that should be informative for later in the season.

Plus we start our Countdown to Cheltenham, in which we highlight a horse running at the weekend to keep an eye on for the festival in less than eight short weeks.

Download the latest instalment of The Big Punt here

Victor Chandler Chase - Big Race Preview

A great afternoon of Racing is in prospect this Saturday at Ascot as the Royal track hosts the 25th anniversary of the Victor Chandler chase.

Won last year by the brilliant Master Minded, this year’s renewal of the Victor Chandler doesn’t quite have that sort of star power but looks a fascinating race nonetheless and with Cheltenham looming ever nearer on the horizon, Saturday’s big race should give us some all important pointers for the Festival in eight weeks time.

As is usually the case with a race preview, where better to start than with the favourite?

Currently at the head of the market for Saturday’s feature is the Nicky Henderson-trained Finian’s Rainbow, named after the musical of the same name will victory for the horse be music to owner Michael Buckley’s ears? According to the betting the answer is yes, but is the horse too short at a best price of 15/8 at the moment?

Gold Cup Entries Announced

The stage is set for Kauto-Long Run V after both horses, as expected, were among 34 horses entered for the Cheltenham Festival show piece the Betfred Gold Cup on March 16th.

Last season belonged to Nicky Henderson’s young pretender, but this season has all been about the legend that is Kauto Star, as the now 12 year old superstar rolled back the years and defeated Long Run in both the Betfair Chase and the King George prompting scenes of jubilation from his legions of fans rarely seen at a race course.

Long Run supporters will be hoping the extra distance and that gruelling Cheltenham hill will be enough to see the younger legs of Long Run win out this time around though, but with Kauto seemingly in the form of his life you’d be a fool to rule him out of making history yet again.

As much as it may look like this year’s Gold Cup is nothing more than a match between the aforementioned former winners of the race, but that is in fact far from the case however. I actually fancy perhaps the most controversial name on the list of the horses entered to win the Gold Cup this year and that horse is David Pipe’s brilliant novice Grands Crus.

Top 5 Denman Races

There’s nothing sadder than realising that the immortal are just as fallible as the rest of us, and last week Horse Racing was forced into that uncomfortable realisation.

One of the kings of a golden era of staying chasers, the mighty Denman, was unfortunately pushed in to early retirement by injury and with that news came the horrible reality check that we would never again get to see ‘The Tank’ relentlessly galloping his rivals in to the ground.

Denman’s rapid rise to the upper echelons of jump racing coincided almost completely in sync with my ever increasing interest in the sport of Kings and along with his majestic stable mate and great rival (and friend) Kauto Star, he helped to ensure that I fell completely in love not only with these two beautiful equine creatures but also the sport that I now call a very healthy obsession.

With Denman now competitively off the track for good we’ll not have the opportunity to see him blaze any new trails round the great race courses of the UK & Ireland, but we all still have our memories, and Denman is certainly responsible for his fair share of unforgettable moments over the last half a decade.