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21-373 Barizan 4 11-7 Evan Williams 140 40/1
5311-3 Binocular 6 11-7 N J Henderson 171 2/1
404-92 Bocamix 4 11-7 A Crook 130 200/1
5F16-1 Escort´men 4 11-7 P F Nicholls 149 12/1
51121- Khyber Kim 8 11-7 N A Twiston-Davies58 167 7/2
1114- Oscar Whisky 5 11-7 N J Henderson 146 10/1
111-21 Overturn 6 11-7 D McCain Jnr 159 8/1
113-F3 Sanctuaire 4 11-7 P F Nicholls 145 25/1
1225-2 Starluck 5 11-7 A Fleming 160 10/3
1247-6 Washington Irving 5 11-7 J Howard Johnson 130 150/1I’ve already piled into Binocular and had £100 @ 2/1, think it is like buying money.
Starluck for me.
Lovely horse, will be suited by Kempton and i think he is improving.
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I’ve already piled into Binocular and had £100 @ 2/1, think it is like buying money.
And probably so did they, who made him 11/8 last year.
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It’s all very well looking at the book and saying Binocular is buying money but you have to look at the whole picture.
Nicky Henderson may be the leading trainer at Kempton but he also by his own addmisson loves to run horses there to sharpen them up for Chetenham. Kempton doesn’t eactly suit Binocular which is the first worry
I’ve always maintained there’s only one way to ride Binocular and the best example of it was at Ascot when beating Celestial Halo and when winning the Champion Hurdle.
If the use his speed early in the straight or just after the 3rd last not many horses can go with him without coming off the bridle.
Either Barizan or Overturn if they run is going to take off like a scladed cat so pace should not be a problem.
If they are really all out to win this I would expect Binocalar to challenging for the lead very early in the straight. The problem is he’s going to have harder race if he plays his cards early and they may not want that.
The alternative is to play cat and mouse with a very fit Starluck which will also allow Khyber Kim to get into the race and let the fun begin.
Binocular could come out on top but so could any of the other two.
Go early and fast and get Starluck off the bridle I doubt if Khyber Kim has the toe to get into it.
I’ve backed Binocular and am fairly confident he’ll win but I wouldn’t have the kitchen sink on it.
2/1 looks very generous but with good reason.
If Starluck’s challenge can be delivered with precision, he can take this. Kempton is a course that clearly suits him well.
Gambling Only Pays When You're Winning
Had Binocular won last time out i would have said he"s the one to beat but it looks like he"s being trained with one race in mind! Again!
Overturn
did me proud in the Pitmans Derby coming form the car park and leading them a merry dance,i can see him doing just the same here,on a course that will allow him to wind it up,just enough to take the sting out of Starlucks finishing kick.
Had Binocular won last time out i would have said he"s the one to beat but it looks like he"s being trained with one race in mind! Again! .
Binocular is an interesting horse, I have him the 2nd best hurdler since Istabraq but it seems to me there are a number of fallacies that have grown up around his training regime and record that are not borne out by his profile. The two most common are;
He is a spring horse
Nicky will get him right on the big day in March.Firstly, his record in the spring is not exceptional his win ratio in March/April is 2/4, in Nov/Dec its 2/5 and in Jan/Feb its 3/3. His overall win profile is 58% his record in the spring is 50%. Now this can be somewhat explained by the fact that the races in the spring are more competitive festival heats, however he should be primed for these more than some other races some of which were novices.
This leads us on to the second point that you excuse his winter defeats as he is always aimed at the festival when his trainer will have him spot on…well if this is the case then there are further issues. His festival record is good but not legendary and arguably for one of his talent only fair. He has won 1 of 3 festival attempts…a stunning CH win, a Supreme 2nd and another CH 3rd. On the latest of those I have seen it commented on here that he ran as much as 10lbs below his best…fair enough but that means he wasn’t spot on, so relying on him being trained perfectly for the CH is problematic.
I would suggest there is far less pattern to his form than is generally assumed and that he carries a fair degree of unpredictability into every race he graces.
A terrific horse to have around.An Excellent post there Shabby,muddys the waters even more mind! I have learned with
Binocular
and his connections that when JP sits around the Ante-Post table,planning his Big hits for the season this horse is The Assassin,he will be cherry ripe and 100% tuned to the minute for the Champion hurdle,he is still capable of running a big race here but he wont be fine tuned,Nicky could tune a Stradivarius for prom night! I"m just having a flashback to
Fondmorts
Ryanair Victory! Mort Fond Memories!
I honestly don’t get this Binocular. When he won the rescheduled Bula at Ascot, I thought he’d be an absolute hurdling superstar but apart from the Champion Hurdle last season, he’s never really produced on his promise. He’s had 8 runs since leaving novice company and he’s won 4 of them. Two of those wins were only egg and spoon races (won at sp’s of 1/9 and 1/7) so effectively in proper races he’s 2 from 6.
He isn’t a big stuffy horse so I find it hard to accept that it takes him several runs to get up to peak fitness. It just appears as if Henderson wants to prime him for one day and one day only. I’d be very wary about backing him in this at a skimpyish price as a result. Starluck would appear to be far better value on Newbury form. I know McCoy didn’t knock Binocular about that day but what’s to say he won’t do the same here. Even if he does get beaten here you couldn’t rule him out of the Champion Hurdle picture though.
Hopefully the race will be off and JP will send him over to take on Hurricane Fly and Solwhit at Leopardstown instead!
Binocular is an interesting horse, I have him the 2nd best hurdler since Istabraq
Hmmm. Maybe he will be in the future but he has still a long way to go to match Hardy Eustace and Brave Inca’s achievements. Visually, Binocular’s Champion Hurdle probably was the most impressive win in that race since Istabraq but what is the form worth? I would say Hardy Eustace achieved far more in beating Harchibald, Brave Inca, Macs Joy, Rooster Booster etc than Binocular achieved in beating Khyber Kim, Celestial Halo, Medermit etc. It seems certain that Binocular will get a much stronger test of his credentials this March if Menorah, Hurricane Fly and Peddlers Cross pitch up fit and well.
I hate Binny. I have no time for him. A horse along the same lines of Hawk Wing. A complete nutter!!!!.
Never carry my cash
Ok Mr Fist, I shall be serving you up a big piece of humble pie to chow down on after the race sir
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If he wins I’ll be able to afford my own humble pie thank you
Will this race be reopened? If so i can see Menorah being entered now there is a much bigger gap since his last run and this race being used as his cheltenham prep. likely to be a strong pace in the race as well
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An Excellent post there Shabby,muddys the waters even more mind! I have learned with
Binocular
and his connections that when JP sits around the Ante-Post table,planning his Big hits for the season this horse is The Assassin,he will be cherry ripe and 100% tuned to the minute for the Champion hurdle,he is still capable of running a big race here but he wont be fine tuned,Nicky could tune a Stradivarius for prom night! I"m just having a flashback to
Fondmorts
Ryanair Victory! Mort Fond Memories!
Geezuz Gord were you on the vino calapso when you wrote these two posts?
Binocular is a class horse whether it’s spring summer or fall and Nicky and JP would win every race he ran in if they could.
The only thing that stopped him being unbeaten in his first season was Frank Berry and JP (Francheok) messing Nicky about so much he thought the horse was going to Aintree until 24 hours before the Supreme…….He went to Chelteham well short of a gallop and JP backed Captain Cee Bee not Binocular. Binny then went to Aintree having come on a ton from his Chetenham run and destroyed C Halo. Just about everyone, myself not included, said it was the track which beat him at Cheltenham and we now know how much rubbish that turned out to be.
BTW JP’s gambles are always well documented and there are none to be seen anwhere on Binocular. After he won at Aintree all chances of pulling a stroke with him were well and truly gone.
His next season he’s hacked up in November and December before getting a poor ride from AP something he blames himself for.
The next season something was clearly a miss and it wasn’t because of the time of year. Compare that run at Newcastle to this season’s He looked like winning this season until he blew up last season he just flopped completely in a race AP said he thought he would win. We all know what happened from there. No champion hurdle gamble.
A job/spring horse isn’t how I would view him and I’m pretty sure there’s no great plan to be skinning the bookies because everyone knows Nicky will have him fitter in March than he is now.
He’ll most likley just about win at Kempton because he’s had a run and he’s in a differnet league to the rest. Nicky Henderson isn’t in the habit of throwing away prizes like the Chrismas Hurdle and you can bet he’ll be fit enough to win this time and still take all the beating at Cheltenham.
Note: AP said he was delighted with Binocular after the Fighting Fifth saying he’d come on a ton from that. The year before he was gobsmacked and couldn’t believe how flat he was…….not the same is it?
2/1 is massive Grab It!!!!
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Interesting to read Donal McCain saying the 3 week delay in this race was a blessing in disguise or words to that affect.
It would seem Overturn wasn’t quite where he wanted him to be at Xmas but he now has him spot on which should add a bit of spice to the race.
Binoculars a bit different as Nicky said you know when he’s wrong but he not the type to show you enough to be confident you have him spot on. However the little news that has come out would indicate he’s certainly not the sick horse he was at this time last year.
I pleased about the Overturn news because it will make sure there isn’t one of these silly sprints from two out that is simply not Binoculars thing.
It’s great to see the new feed policy at NTD’s yard seems to have done the trick. He’s maintaining a good strike rate and with luck will top 100 winners this season for the first time in his very long career.
Not so good news for me, as I have already backed Binocular but like Binocular this wouldn’t really be his kind of track. Overturen and Starluck’s style of running is much better suited to a tight track like Kempton.
Should be a cracking race despite the smallish field.
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