Punjabi Trial

25 February 2010

There will be a few anxious faces on Racing Post Chase day at Kempton at around 1 o’clock on Saturday when Punjabi tackles what is effectively the last Champion Hurdle trial, one week after his planned prep was frozen/ washed out at Wincanton.

Punjabi will warm up for the defence of his title in yet another race that shows just how flexible the authorities have become in balancing the need of the top horses to have their required preps and the overall fixture list. This race, ironically, may be more competitive than the better-endowed Kingwell Hurdle might have proved.

One worry for Nicky Henderson is that Punjabi will have less time than last year, when he was only third at Wincanton, to recover from these exertions. Clearly, though, the trainer wanted to hone his horse to the sort of peak fitness needed to win at the top level.

It’s a delicate balance. If the race had been another apparent walkover, as the trials Binocular (Sandown) and Kelso (Zaynar) endured recently, it might well have been a no-win situation.

Binocular’s unspectacular win over Dee Ee Williams and Wednesday’s runaway Ludlow winner Marodima was the precursor to discovery of a season-ending muscle problem, while Zaynar’s defeat may in time prove to be almost as much a question of shock winner Quwetwo’s hitherto hidden ability as the desperately heavy ground. In short, there’s always the chance of a bloody nose for even the best horses.

The weird thing about the whole Champion Hurdle scene is just how few real contenders, especially on this side of the Irish Sea, there are, and how little those who do count are being asked to run.

Khyber Kim’s two Cheltenham wins should finally have established him in the elite group from which the winner will come and by now his flop in last year’s County Hurdle will have been forgotten.

Earlier in Punjabi’s career very soft ground was thought to be unsuitable, but he has raced on it a number of times, and was a shade unlucky not to catch Solwhit on the worst he’s encountered in last year’s big race at Punchestown after his Champion win.

A last-flight blunder by Punjabi gave Solwhit the advantage that day, but Barry Geraghty rallied Punjabi to such a degree that he would have won in a few more strides.

Solwhit, with two wins out of three this season, has firmed to around 3-1 favouritism while at least treble those odds are available about Punjabi, whose price has hardly shifted since Binocular’s demise and Zaynar’s first defeat.

The make-up of Saturday’s race is tantalising. Afsoun and the improving chaser French Opera are stablemates potentially bolstering the field, and either would be a likely pace-setter should he turn up.

The race conditions allow both horses an 8lb pull, and that was the situation when Afsoun led Punjabi for much of the Haydock trial in which they finished second and third respectively to Medermit.

Afsoun was however unplaced over three miles back at Haydock last weekend and anyway has the National Spirit at Fontwell on Sunday as an alternative.

French Opera, in the Arkle, yet experienced enough to have run third in the Cheltenham chase that commemorates Henderson’s late father Johnny 13 months ago, might well find this a nice warm up. He has won all three chases this term, before which he was a fair hurdler, and can go from the front.

Blue Bajan would be the obvious threat. Rated well into the 100’s on the Flat, he has won a Swinton Hurdle and was placed in the 2008 Christmas Hurdle, in which both Punjabi (chasing the £1 million WBX.COM bonus) and Afsoun fell.

He has looked out of form so far this winter, but track, ground and race conditions make him a feasible contender if getting back to his best.

The long-absent Border Castle was 22nd of 24 in that Swinton Hurdle in the spring of 2008, when conceding a stone to Andy Turnell’s gelding. That came hard on a fine win in the Scottish Champion Hurdle, and the versatile former Andrew Balding Flat-racer is a real dark horse with the propensity to surprise on this return after a near two-year absence.

Border Castle is now nine, but the exploits last summer of his contemporary, the mare Treaty Flyer for trainer Alison Thorpe show age is not necessarily a barrier. Treaty Flyer gets an extra 7lb female allowance, while even the year older Earth Magic, while a non-winner for some time, won at Graded level in Ireland a few years back.

The BHA and Levy Board’s fear that such a hastily-arranged race could prove to be a non-event, therefore looks unlikely and even the shrewd Gary Moore and Paul Howling have entered horses that suit the conditions, if hardly serious contenders.

So full marks to the authorities, and for Punjabi, Blue Bajan and the rest, the fact the race is first on means the ground will be the best of the day. Thankfully, Sandown on Friday will not be switching over Hampton Court Bridge should Esher be submerged.

Hope springs eternal for Punjabi and victory on Saturday should keep him in place to challenge that upstart Go Native trying for the £1 million that eluded Ray Tooth’s star so cruelly in that notorious (for Ray) Christmas Hurdle.

Back