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What bothers me slightly about Zaynar, apart from his age, is the fact that they are planning to use cheekpieces on him again for the race itself, which must mean that he is not a 100% straightforward ride. Not sure if many horses wear blinkers/cheekpieces for the Ch Hurdle?
What bothers me slightly about Zaynar, apart from his age, is the fact that they are planning to use cheekpieces on him again for the race itself, which must mean that he is not a 100% straightforward ride. Not sure if many horses wear blinkers/cheekpieces for the Ch Hurdle?
Dessie used to put a visor on Hardy Eustace to sharpen him up in the Champion Hurdle.
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Dessie used to put a visor on Hardy Eustace to sharpen him up in the Champion Hurdle.
Which, apparently, has been the plan all season for Zaynar too.
It may not be enough judged on his Triumph win though and, for all his speed over further, I’d still rather be a layer than a backer.More proof that my failing memory is indeed…. failing! How could I forget Hardy Eustace? It was more cheekpieces that I wasn’t sure of, thinking that they were used more for horses that perhaps didn’t like the hurly burly of large fields etc. They seem to be relatively new, and I’m not sure what their actual use is, or why they are used on Zaynar.
His brilliant best has got him beat twice at the festival.
Not so brilliant then, is he?
No need to be so blunt. I personally have the opinion it was McCoy that got him beat last year by not playing his cards sooner rather than the horses ability. Anyway, what’s not so brilliant about coming second to the Captain and a very close third in a Champion Hurdle that many said was one of the best in recent years?
Put it this way, Binocular hasn’t finished out of the money at a festival as of yet so 8/1 might prove a very nice bet indeed.
Binocular has a heck of a lot of improvement in him, and is in excellent hands. I think his route so far has been all geared up for the CH, and he will be in peak condition I am sure. He and Go Native are my two bets in this.
What bothers me slightly about Zaynar, apart from his age
An utterly ridiculous trend. ‘5 year olds can’t win the Champion Hurdle’. Putting aside the very poor Katchit, 10 5yos have run in the race in the past 3 seasons. They’ve finished 3rd, 6th, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and the rest were also-rans. A total myth that they have a poor record IMO. Just another pathetic trend with circumstantial evidence to back it up a la no 5yo has ever won the Champion Chase garbage that was being thrown up before Master Minded destroyed the field. Of course it didn’t bother anyone that a 5yo had never ever run in the race…
Having said that Zaynar should be in the World Hurdle field, not enough pace for this. He’ll be flying at the end but only into 4th or 5th or something like that.
i hope the person who threatens to eat his own arm if go native cruises past has a surgeon ready.
I am a Zaynar fan, i think he is the one that will line up with the most question marks, is he too slow or is he a lazy bugger with a tank full of petrol? The answer which I am guessing is the latter, will be in the jockey booking, if Geraghty opts for Zaynar I would be very happy, recent comments compared to his earlier comments suggest to me he will opt for the 5yr old.
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If Binocular hasn’t been straight at least once this season I’d be amazed.
Would that be when he finished 7 lengths behind Sublimity or was it when he finished between Starluck and Cape Tribulation ?
- Total Posts 17716
What bothers me slightly about Zaynar, apart from his age
An utterly ridiculous trend. ‘5 year olds can’t win the Champion Hurdle’. Putting aside the very poor Katchit, 10 5yos have run in the race in the past 3 seasons. They’ve finished 3rd, 6th, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and the rest were also-rans. A total myth that they have a poor record IMO. Just another pathetic trend with circumstantial evidence to back it up a la no 5yo has ever won the Champion Chase garbage that was being thrown up before Master Minded destroyed the field. Of course it didn’t bother anyone that a 5yo had never ever run in the race…
Having said that Zaynar should be in the World Hurdle field, not enough pace for this. He’ll be flying at the end but only into 4th or 5th or something like that.
Would seem the very poor Katchit was better than any of them he won it they didn’t.
The very poor Katchit, from the day he won his first race for Alan King until his CH win, won 10 out of his 13 races and was all wrong in 2 of them and the other was very early in his hurdling career.
5 year old are normally considered not to be mature enough to win the raece and those who have like Perian War, Night Nurse and See You Then turned out to be exceptional animals
Katchit unlkike those is a small horse with a lot less scope for improvement and those sterling efforts early in his carreer took their toll.
Katchit did what no horse had done for 25 years, the horse he beat into 3rd won the following year and you say he was a poor winner? You’re some judge matey.
Binocular narrowly failed to win last year and this year like Katchit was he has been out of sorts as has Celestial Halo and fellow 5 year old Crack Away Jack.
Sort of fits in with the theory running 5 year olds in the Champion Hurdle has it’s price.
Some come back some never do. Katchit is a tough little horse and seems to be coming back to himslef after 2 years in the duldrums. Celestial Halo looks to have gone completely for the time being and Crack Away Jack is out for the season.
Binocular could bounce back as no one knows better than Nicky Henderson how to prepare them for this as he proved with See You Then. One things for sure when he was beaten at Newcastle Nicky wouldn’t push him it woud be foot of the peddle and steady away until Champion Hurdle day so you can ignore his run at Xmas he simply wouldn’t be anywhere near 100%. Not unless Nicky has all of a sudden changed his ways.
It takes an exceptional 5 year old to win a Champiuon Hurdle and I grant you Zaynar could be one of those. He looks as tough as old boot and when Nicky was asked "do you think Zaynar is a Champion Hurdle horse" his reply
was "I don’t think he is I know he is".Can’t say I’ve heard Nicky being so bullish about a horse in a long time so I would let anyone put me off backing him.
Think this is the best race of the festival without a doubt, with 5 or 6 top class horses competing. Will be a joy to watch, though unfortunately I can only make Gold Cup day due to work commitments
We have 2 final CH prep races next week.
If as expected Zaynar wins in style at Kelso he should harden as favourite for the big race.
Punjabi is a likely runner at Wincanton, but I expect him to run a similar race to last year and for his price to drift.
Following these 2 trials Barry Geraghty will know which horse he intends to ride, when he finally confirms Zaynar as his ride the price should fall half a point or so.
Binocular looks a shadow of the horse he was last year, he seems to have lost the ability to quicken off a fast pace.
The connections of Celestial Halo are making bullish noises about his CH chance despite his 2 defeats this season, given that he seems to be a spring horse and prefers good/good to soft ground which he is likely to get then I think 16/1 is a good each way bet.
i hope the person who threatens to eat his own arm if go native cruises past has a surgeon ready.
That would be Reet Hard! He swam the Channel last year with Youmzain and Conduit on his back! The guys a savage!
Think this is the best race of the festival without a doubt, with 5 or 6 top class horses competing. Will be a joy to watch, though unfortunately I can only make Gold Cup day due to work commitments
Close call rich, yes the Champion hurdle has at least 6 horses who could win it,but the Arkle, RSA, Gold Cup, Ryanair, World Hurdle are all going to be crackers too!
I think Zaynar will win it, I really like this horse it’s a class act and Nicky Henderson can win it again with this excellent grey.
Kyber Kim to burn em’
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