Punjabi Still on Track

05 January 2010

One man above all others will be hoping Ffos Las proves right in being optimistic that Saturday’s meeting, featuring the SIS Live Welsh Champion, will go ahead and prove an oasis in a tundra of British ice and snow.

True Dai Walters, Ffos Las’s owner, has an obvious proprietorial interest, but Nicky Henderson, keen to find suitable pre-Cheltenham options for his trio of candidates, would have his life made even more complicated if Punjabi’s target is ruled out.

With ante-post favourite Zaynar now confirmed for Sandown and Binocular waiting in the wings for his next prep after running third at Kempton, Punjabi will be fitter than when fourth to Khyber Kim in the Boylesports Hurdle.

True he has to make up eight lengths on Medermit, third in the Boylesports. The Alan King gelding, a fast finisher up the Cheltenham hill in last year’s Supreme Novice Hurdle behind Go Native, again stayed on to be third last month, and the pair will meet on similar terms with Punjabi conceding 4lb.

The early betting on the race, with Punjabi favourite at evens, flies in the face of the Boylesports result, but is firmly in line with Henderson’s pre-Cheltenham opinion of his reigning champion’s readiness or lack of it.

There is no reason why the Ffos Las track should not suit, and he is clearly the speed horse in the 12-horse line-up. Apart from Medermit, the main opposition could come from Donna’s Palm, winner of all three runs this term.

The six-year-old will share top-weight and has already proved his stamina. He has won six times in all and the Noel Meade gelding will be testing some of the possible Champion Hurdle opposition to the £1 million-seeking Go Native.

Of the others, Irish pair De Valira and Won in the Dark, fourth and sixth (last) and well behind Solwhit in the Festival Hurdle at Leopardstown over Christmas, and Blue Bajan, outpaced in a tactical WBX.COM Fighting Fifth Hurdle, seem to have a bit to find with the principals.

More interesting are Red Moloney, third over two and a half miles in Zaynar’s Ascot comeback, and the David Pipe-trained Mutual Friend, a Cheltenham handicap winner in October, but it does seem between Punjabi, Medermit and Donna’s Palm.

Let’s hope, and not just for selfish reasons, that it goes ahead. Ffos Las deserves its day in the limelight, and if it’s on, you’d better start your car sometime on Friday afternoon if you want to be there for the first race!

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