Where Next for Punjabi?

13 January 2010

Just when you thought it was safe to come out from the warm, winter chose a crucial midweek to renew its grip. So having believed Kempton’s Lanzarote Hurdle meeting would be safe as temperatures rose, so the provisional all-bumper card for Sunbury looked the likelier.

Thursday at 3 p.m. is the time for deciding which of the two versions, both, happily, sponsored by William Hill, will entertain racegoers. Certainly a bumper for high-class jumpers would be a novelty, especially with such as Punjabi, Celestial Halo, Blue Bajan and American Triliogy among the tentative entries.

The option for Punjabi would be helpful in the regard that he would maintain fitness levels in the event of further disruption next week. But two obvious snags accompany such a move. First would be the race distance of two miles – he has never raced beyond a mile and a half on the Flat, and only once at the trip.

The second difficulty would be that certainly Celestial Halo and Blue Bajan carry existing Flat-race ratings above 100 while Punjabi was raised to 92 after a gallant defeat of subsequent Melbourne Cup favourite Mad Rush at Newmarket in the spring of 2008.

Nicky Henderson told me earlier in the week that he much preferred the following Saturday’s hurdling option – Haydock’s Champion Hurdle trial in which Class 1 jumps winners are penalised 8lb with half penalties for winners of novice Class 1 races.

Haydock would seem an ideal track for Ray Tooth’s star, level and with a decent run home. Punjabi’s last win, apart from the Champion Hurdle, came over the very similar Wetherby track in the re-routed 2008 WBX.COM Fighting Fifth Hurdle.

Nicky has been typically thorough in that he has also pencilled in the Toshiba Irish Champion Hurdle the day after Haydock should the Lancashire track be unraceable. With the forecast improving, though, it seems we would need to be unlucky to lose it, along with all the other earlier casualties.

At this stage, there must be a loud cheer for the efforts of the track and the BHA for their flexibility in offering late and in some cases revolutionary meetings. Southwell were first off the mark with Wednesday’s all bumper card – Nicky showing his gratitude with a Barry Geraghty-ridden treble.

That too was encouraging for fans of Punjabi and indeed Binocular and Zaynar whenever they are primed for their next crucial objective. To see that Seven Barrows’ efforts to clear snow and keep fitness levels at peak was so royally rewarded augurs extra well for the Cheltenham trio.

Kempton, too, have been (along with the other three most-weather tracks) heroic. Wednesday’s snows were valiantly stemmed to enable the twilight card to progress, and the readiness to slot in another all-bumper spectacular to save TV and betting shop revenues deserves the highest praise, for track and authority alike.

My best guess is that Punjabi will wend his way to Haydock, in preference to another joust with Leopardstown-bound Solwhit. Maybe Donna’s Palm will flex the Go Native stable’s muscles there, leaving another colleague Muirfield to test the champ’s state of readiness the day before. It’s tricky enough but Nicky Henderson has all the bases (and a few that aren’t even there yet) covered.

Back