Champion Hurdle Preview

15 March 2010

So after all the to-ing and fro-ing, here we are with a tight 12 for the Champion Hurdle.

Make no mistake, all 12 have a chance in a race where it is hard to be dogmatic on who will make the running and even less certain that the pace will be as fast as is generally expected in a championship race at the meeting.

The Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle has a clear favourite in the million-seeking Go Native, the answer to a publicity-seeking promoter’s dreams, but at the same time a financial nightmare for wbx.com’s boss, who has only partly hedged against the glorious conclusion to that Fighting Fifth, Christmas Hurdle, Champion Hurdle treble.

Noel Meade has been near before with Harchibald and in Go Native he has a similar type. He and Paul Carberry, who will have just ice rather than a cocktail flavoured with alcohol – the reason for his mid-season drink suspension – in his veins as he tries to deliver Go Native late.

He will not be the only one hanging about at the back and like many in the field, he will be hoping that first time blinkers might fire up Celestial Halo, last year’s runner-up and the 2008 Triumph Hurdle hero. It could be, however, that the canny Ruby Walsh might also want to employ different tactics for a horse still rated 110 on the Flat.

Celestial Halo is in that eight-horse betting logjam on offer between a shortest 6-1 (Solwhit) and Starluck (12-1) of logical contenders, all separated by a few pounds, He is actually the highest-rated, officialdom stubborn in taking his best run – in a Wincanton handicap before the turn of the year – as his mark.

If he is not taken to the front, expect Won in the Dark, winner of his last two but generally an also-ran at this level, or even Zaynar, who will need it to be a gallop, to help force the pace. The latter’s re-applied cheek-pieces that adorned his winning effort in the 2009 Triumph, are expected to help galvanise him after that 1-14 shock trial defeat at Kelso.

Then there are the Lazarean pair, Binocular and Solwhit both back from the dead, well respectively muscle injury and a late bad scope adorned with a few coughs in Solwhit’s case.

Binocular has come spectacularly back into the action room in the betting after a brilliant home school and satisfactory work out under Tony McCoy, while Solwhit’s revival might come in time for him to be a threat, even allowing that the ground might be lively for him at the minimum trip.

I started by saying they all have a chance and that includes 250-1 (with VC, who is part-owner of Zaynar) Raise Your Heart. If many have had unconventional preparations, surely Joanna Morgan’s three-race paid holiday (no prizemoney) in hot company in Meydan, takes the biscuit.

What the short-sighted layers have probably forgotten was the Greatwood Hurdle. This 2009 Irish Listed winner (now rated 107 on the Flat) started only 10-1 despite carrying the same weight as third-placed Medermit (8-1) and 3lb more than winner Khyber Kim. That pair are both around 8-1 now.

Jumbo Rio’s best form has come in France, but he too is no rag, as the fact he would have carried top-weight if taking up the Vincent O’Brien County Hurdle engagement later in the week confirms.

So, that’s about it, or am I forgetting one. No sour grapes but after Punjabi’s win 12 months ago, it was not until the penny dropped and a few people realised that he would have been in Go Native’s position bar that costly fall at Kempton, that it twigged he had in fact won.

The Binocular defeat was the main issue, with people talking about how that horse would have won if the race had been started from stalls, the snow hadn’t come and the like, while runner-up Celestial Halo should have been held on to for longer.

Then there was Crack Away Jack (fourth) and Muirhead, who must both have surely won if starting their challenges earlier and as for eighth-placed Jered – did you see his flying run up the hill?

That short-head second to Solwhit at Punchestown, where Punjabi was going for a third straight win at the meeting, followed by a fitness-craving fourth behind Khyber Kim, Celestial Halo and Medermit at Cheltenham, and second to Medermit (rec 4lb) at Haydock reflected gradual progress.

Then the luck turned, Kempton put on a replacement for waterlogged Wincanton and he strolled home as he should, balancing achievement with a paid public gallop. He’s where he should be for this challenge; are the others? Apart from that million quid (and sincerely good luck to Go Native) I know Raymond Tooth wouldn’t swap his fighter for another, and I heartily endorse his sentiments.

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