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Was not impressed with the run at all.
Firstly don’t but into the the trainers drivel about he will come on for the race, total nonsence. He was ready for yesterday and fit as a flea otherwise he wouldn’t win. Besides which a good jusdge of horses has informed me he looked raring to go in the paddock.
Would a trainer not have him ready for an 80k race???? Course he would, Nicholls was just covering his back.
Now, the horse should be hoising up by further of the weight he carried. It was not a devastating win and i just could not have him. LAY LAY LAY. The horse ariund him of similar marks aren’t in the champion betting so why should he be second favourite.
RPR is so low i wouldn’t touch him at 25s
5 year olds do not win champion hurdles too. Far too many negatives.
Now look at raya star line of form, Rock on ruby who is over twice the price gave the horse well over a stone and the best part of a 16lenght tonking first time out also at newbury. If Rock on ruby is not ahead of Zarkandar at the festival i’ll be astonished.
HF is much the most likely winner but Zarkandar should not be underrated . Nicholls knows when a horse will improve a ton and the slow pace would have been much against the horse . He was also having his first run and no other horse has done that and won in 40 years.
That being said Darlan was cantering and might have hacked up and Get Me Out of Here might have gone beyond recall but for being so badly hampered .
The most likely danger to HF is Binocular . At his best on the 2010 CH run he is not far off HF’s best ratings and today he looked as if he was close to it , travelling and jumping with a fluency and zest not seen since his CH win .
Horses for courses, and I expect to see Binocular battling it out with Oscars Well for 2nd.
I’d say you have every right to be extremely happy if, like me, you’re on 11 or fewer runners in the Champion Hurdle.
Of the current 20 entrants, we can immediately cross off Peddler’s Cross.
Olofi I presume was entered in case he won the Tote Gold Trophy and was given a stupid handicap mark, but since he finished 5th he’ll surely go for the County Hurdle. Final Approach also finished last and therefore probably won’t be running. 17.
Starluck ran very poorly today and I’m not sure connections will pursue the Champion Hurdle route. They said they’d only go down that road if he ran well, which he didn’t. He was beaten 16L. 16.
Kalann was also swept aside by Zaidpour today, so you’d have to think that connections won’t bother either. 15. Zaidpour’s been friendless for the World Hurdle on Betfair and Mullins said earlier that there was no plan for him, but I don’t think he’ll be running at Cheltenham. 14. I also don’t think we’ll see Mikael d’Haguenet as he’s running in the 2m 5f Boyne Hurdle tomorrow. 13. I don’t think both Thousand Stars and So Young will run, but probably 1 will. 12.
Celestial Halo had been expected to skip the Festival but Nicholls said earlier that the Champion Hurdle was now the plan. Will they bother after being beaten 6L by Binocular? Doubt it. 11.
And then of course we still have Clerk’s Choice, who’s rubbish. 10.
Even if I’m wrong about 1 or even 2 of the above, Brampour didn’t cover himself in glory finishing only 7th in the Tote Trophy and there’s Staying Article as well, another no-hoper.
I was pretty worried about the bet once 20 were declared the other day, but I’m still very hopeful.
1st) Hurricane Fly – Class act
2nd) Zarkandar – Class act but not as much so as the previous
3rd) Binocular/Rock On Ruby – Both course form, worth a place
MASSIVE LAY: Grandouet – Will finish nowhere, ok HGM, I messed up with Sprinter Sacre, but Grandouet won’t finish in the first 5 – fact!
It’s a good race this year, and in my opinion the principles will probably get places for a change.
I’m still of the opinion this lies between Hurricane Fly and the Henderson pair.
Binocular looked better than he has in a very long time in the Kingwell. Granted PN’s are running in and out but what finished 2nd is irrelevant Binocular was fast accurate and hardly moved a hair to win.
In that sort of form he’s going to come off the top of that hill like a greyhound and not many will be able to go with him.
Zarkandar hit a flat spot in the Betfair and that’s a huge worry. Do that in the Champion Hurdle within shouting distance of the third last and forget it, you’d need wings to get back into it. The form against GMOOH and Raya Star is not CH form by any stretch of the imagination. He’s going to have to improve at least 10lbs in a few weeks to win……Not going to happen IMO.
With Grandouet the big question must be is Binocular fast enough to get him of the bridle? Nothing has so far this season and although Overturn isn’t a Champion Hurdle horse he’s one helluva fast horse to be hacking all over the top of.
Of course Hurricane Fly also has a very high cruising speed and one helluva kick but that kick could be blunted a bit just getting to Binocular. Once he does or perhaps I should say if he does the Binocular could be picked off by the likes of Zarkandar for a place but AP never gives up so I think he’ll still be placed.
It’s going to be tougher this year than last IMO I’ve always thought Peddler’s Cross is more about grinding and he lacks the ability to quicken impressively, which made him easy pickings for Hurricane Fly. He won’t find Binocular as easy and his efforts to get to him might just open the door for Grandouet to make a race of it.
If he can stay in cruise control long enough I simply can’t see there being much in it at the finish and that long stride of Grandouet may just win the day.
1. Grandouet
2. Hurricane Fly
3. Binocular
HF absolutely laughed at Binocular at Punchestown last year, I accept Cheltenham may suit Bino better and I accept that he may not have been at his best last year but he’ll have to have improved a tonne to get anywhere near The Fly.
Still think HF is improving plus he’s got the added advantage of course experienve this year.
Oscars Well would be my pick for the forecast, ran well at Cheltenham lasy year, has improved with each run this season and will enjoy the better ground.
HF, Sprinter, Quevega, around 6/1 for a first day treble, looks more than tempting.
It’s unusual to find so many polarized opinions about a big race winner. Racing Post summariser didn’t think much of Zarkandar’s wing nor did one or two of my friends.
I thought it a fine performance. Ruby reported that he saw nothing of the first four hurdles in a very crowded field yet jumped impeccably.When the pace finally quickened he was caught flat-footed which then left him with some very challenging traffic problems (he traded at 99 in running). He was slightly hampered in the ‘collateral damage’ from Darlan and, crucially IMO, had still not reached anything close to top gear by the time he hit the front. He won with an awful lot in hand, to my eye.
Only PFN knows how much he has left to work on. The stats on the first winner for 40 years to debut that season means little without the data on other qualifiers.
I saw nothing to dissuade me from the notion that he has improved by at least as much as Grandouet whom he beat a comfortable five lengths in The Triumph. Grandouet is rated 166, HF, 173. I also got the notion Ruby was much more impressed on Friday than he let on.
I mentioned in another post that after pulling up in The Triumph, Zarkandar looked to me as though he was just getting ready to go to post. It is the first time in more than 40 years punting I then backed the Triumph winner to lift the CH the following year.
He might hit flat spots; he doesn’t have the flashy, immediate turn of foot possessed by HF but I’m pretty confident he has huge power to burn and once he starts accellerating he will pass horses up that hill as though they were standing still.
My only concern is the current form of the yard and time might tell that Friday’s victory was all the more meritorious. Nep Collonges was the only one of the yard’s 16 runners yesterday who threatened to win. Silv Conti went out tamely and Celestial Halo looked far from his exuberant self.
If Zarkandar gets to post in full health, I think he might even make the Fly look ordinary.
Agree with your post in it’s entirity Steeplechasing.Re the form of the stable,better to have a bit of blip now than in 3-4 weeks time.Come on Zark!!
My only concern is the current form of the yard and time might tell that Friday’s victory was all the more meritorious. Nep Collonges was the only one of the yard’s 16 runners yesterday who threatened to win. Silv Conti went out tamely and Celestial Halo looked far from his exuberant self.
Often happens with Nicholls between New Year and Cheltenham due to the horses having their vaccinations.
My only concern is the current form of the yard and time might tell that Friday’s victory was all the more meritorious. Nep Collonges was the only one of the yard’s 16 runners yesterday who threatened to win. Silv Conti went out tamely and Celestial Halo looked far from his exuberant self.
Often happens with Nicholls between New Year and Cheltenham due to the horses having their vaccinations.
Thanks Mark. I didn’t know that. He really ought to have a short break if that’s the case – vaccination vacation.
My only concern is the current form of the yard and time might tell that Friday’s victory was all the more meritorious. Nep Collonges was the only one of the yard’s 16 runners yesterday who threatened to win. Silv Conti went out tamely and Celestial Halo looked far from his exuberant self.
Often happens with Nicholls between New Year and Cheltenham due to the horses having their vaccinations.
Thanks Mark. I didn’t know that. He really ought to have a short break if that’s the case – vaccination vacation.
It’s worse than normal this season – just 1 winner in 31 this month – but i think he’ll be back to normal in a week or so. The cold snap has come later and further south than normal this winter
There’s also the two yards – this will help with vaccinations as they probably do one yard before the other.
Rock On Ruby is in a different yard to Zarkandar.I was delighted to see the way Binocular traveled and jumped in the Kingwell. It’s the best he’s looked since his victory in the Champion Hurdle. I’ve always believed that if he could reproduce his CH winning form then he’d be a major threat to Hurricane Fly.
Looking at the race now I can only see one of these two winning the it. For me it all depends on which Binocular turns up. If he runs to his best then I think it will be very close between him and HF. If not then HF will win easily in my opinion.
I can’t see Zarkandar, Grandouet & rest challenging for any more than the minor placings.
I agree, I can see Zarkandar doing no better than 3rd and think he’ll probably only manage 4th. Oscars Well and Binocular for the places.
Great result today for Under 12 runners in the Champion Hurdle backers. Mikael d’H losing means that it’s more likely So Young will run in the World Hurdle now, with very little chance of Mikael even coming over I’d have thought.
Unfortunately, Nicholls says there is a cough in the yard and has cancelled his media day
http://www.racingpost.com/news/horse-racing/cheltenham-festival-nicholls-cancels-media-day-with-horses-coughing/990208/top/
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