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We have at last come out of the doldrums and can look forward to the best Champion Hurdles in many a year.
Binocular: May well have remained unbeaten last season, but for his trainer thinking he wasn’t going to be allowed to run at Cheltenham. Without doubt one of the classiest individuals to jump a hurdle in a very long time.
Crack Away Jack: Winner of the Fred Winter carrying 11-10 beating the highly regarded Ashkazar and 20 others with ease. He goes from strength to strength and just keeps doing it. He has started the season with a bang and looks certain to figure in the 2009 renewal.
Katchit: They said he was to small to improve. Perhaps they never heard of Sea Buscuit? Winner of last seasons race he is as tough as they come and proved his knockers totally wrong despite all the stats being against him. His catch me if you can tactics from the 3rd last will ensure anything that beats him will be collecting. Can’t see him being out of the first three on 2009.
Sizing Europe : Would he have won the 2008 Champion Hurdle but for going wrong at a crucial stage? Barely out of a canter at the time he looked sure to go close. He made Hardly Eustace and Al Eilee look like selling platers in the AIG and he could very well be the best hurdler in the country bar none.
Osana: But for David Pipes decison to run this horse from the front in the Champion Hurdle he may well have beaten Katchit. Unless they change tactics he won’t be winning in 2009 but a class horse who hopefully will be given a chance to prove he doesn’t have to make all to win.
Punjabi: This horse just keeps getting better. Granted Sublimity who he beat in Ireland was a very poor Champion Hurdle winner IMO but he is still a very good horse. Punjabi ate him alive in Ireland and prior to the 2008 Champion Hurdle almost pulled of the impossible by winning the Tote Gold Trophy carrying top weight. He just keeps getting better and better and is supposidly Nicky Hendersons second string. To some it would be no suprise to see that change in the coming season.
Jered: Binocular’s own JP McManus also has a second string in Jered. Anyone who seen him win the Champion Novices in Ireland had to be impressed. Despite looking every bit a novice he won as he liked and could have doubled the winning distance. Whether he is up to Champion Hurdle class or not remains to be seen but trainer Noele Meade reckons he’s well up to it. He runs on Thursday at Puchestown before going for the Anglo Irish Bank Hurdle and victory there will no doubt see him shorten up for the big one in March.
Others like Hebridean, Pierrot Lunaire and Blue Bajan are being talked about as possible Champion Hurdle horses but will have to show more than they have to figure in the coming season’s renewal.
I don’t know about you guys but I truly believe the 2009 Champion Hurdle has all the makings of being a classic.
If you ask me, should anything but Sizing Europe of those mentioned (a vastly improved novice from last season notwithstanding) win the Champion Hurdle, I’d go as far to say it has been a decidedly ordinary renewal.
Don’t how you can say it will be one of the best Champion Hurdles in years when most of the horse you have mentioned are nothing more than glorified handicappers, none of which would have beaten either Hardy Eustace or Brave Inca in their prime.
Can’t see past Katchit myself.
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I think that’s a little harsh, Friggo, but how are likely are we to see another scintillating Sizing Europe victory? Visually, his AIG win was superb, but plenty (including myself) found cause for concern in evaluating the form and with the added unknown of an extensive period of inactivity due to injury, who knows what he’s now capable of.
I’m not buying into the Crack Away Jack gamble in the slightest, and much prefer to concentrate on the likes of Jered and Pierrot Lunaire. The former looked every inch a class act in winning the Champion Novice Hurdle at Punchestown, and I can only see him getting better this year. The Nicholls horse is more of a gamble – though his price isn’t too disimilar from that of Jered and Crack Away Jack – but looked as though last season wouldn’t be at all lost on him. He was, by all accounts, every bit as good as Celestial Halo at home and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he’s now a good deal better.
I think that’s a little harsh, Friggo
You must understand that my opinion of last year’s CH isn’t printable on a public forum, thus I wouldn’t have Katchit, Osana or Punjabi in the same county as a truly "Classic" renewal.
I think it’ll be a great Champion Hurdle with a few new horses coming into the picture like Crack Away Jack, Binocular, Pierot Lunniere and maybe even Riplling Ring.
Don’t how you can say it will be one of the best Champion Hurdles in years when most of the horse you have mentioned are nothing more than glorified handicappers, none of which would have beaten either Hardy Eustace or Brave Inca in their prime.
Can’t see past Katchit myself.
With all repsect if you think Binocular is nothing more than ahandicapper then there is no hope for you. I get the distinct feeling if I said black you would say white David.
Last year I heard it all from the Sublimity fans who incidently made mincmeat of Hardy Eustace and co when he won that absolutely deadful excuse for a CH. That Era for me was the wrost in the history of the race.
I could even raise an eybrow never mind get excited watching Hardy Eustace plod round there agaianst a bunch of mules (Detroit was an exception). He was nothing more than a one paced galloping machine that would have seen the way horse like sea Pigeon Night Nurse Istabraq etc went.No one will remember those two except for the newcomers to racing who have seen othing and know less IMO. They were damn ordinary and i for one am glad to see the back of them.
You got one thing right Katchit is the horse they all have to beat but even he had to be considered a bit lucky with Sizing Europes departure from the race at a late stage.
Whatever win this champion hurdle will have be a lot better than Hardy Eustace or Brave Inca whi IMO wouldn’t have been in the first three this year let alone next.
Argue all you want but you will never convince me that any of those two would rank among the top ten hurdlers of all time but Binocular has the potential to do so make no mistake about that.
Would love to hear what Fitzy or AP would say to you if you told them Binny was nothimng but a handicapper…
I think it’ll be a great Champion Hurdle with a few new horses coming into the picture like Crack Away Jack, Binocular, Pierot Lunniere and maybe even Riplling Ring.
I would love to see Rippling Ring go chasing but PN would dearly love to have a Champion Hurdle horse so the chances are he won’t see a fence this season. He was going as well if not better than anything at Cheltenham before folding up which was only to be expected. He never really got a fair crack at the whip as he probably didn’t know if he was coming or going last season (Change in climate can have a huge affect)
It will be interesting to see where PN decides to run him but it wouldn’t suprise me to see him run in a Grade 1 against the best at the first opportunity. I would imagine he will want to know the time of day ASAP and should he fail to shine they will send him chasing very quickly.
…Or given his OR of 131 they’ll rack up a quick sequence over hurdles before deciding anything.
On reflection I suppose they probably will. It fits in more with PN’s strategy. I’m sure he likes to keep the owners keen and there is no better way than giving them something to dream about..
I wouldn’t think PFN would be needing to be keep Andy Stewart keen. It just makes more sense to go the handicap hurdle route initially from where I’m sitting.
…Or given his OR of 131 they’ll rack up a quick sequence over hurdles before deciding anything.
…Is the correct answer!
There are usually one or two allocations of marks at the start of the top-class period of the season which catch the eye on account of their clemency, and this is certainly one of those.
Timeform places the gelding on 136p, and Racing Post Ratings awarded him an RPR of 146 for his Festival performance. Given that;
– it was only his second hurdles start,
– it’s conjectural that this South African import had fully acclimatised by then,
– he either tore or pulled muscles during that outing, but for which he may not have folded as he did from two out,it doesn’t take too much of a leap of imagination to believe he is on a fabulous mark ahead of his new campaign.
The one negative about him might just be that issue of his muscle damage – is this symptomatic of a greater ill with him, his equivalent of a propensity to break blood vessels or have a heart murmur, if you like?
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
(Change in climate can have a huge affect).
You’re in Thailand these days, Fists – right?
Figures.
I cant really understand the excuses for Sizing Europe to be honest.
Yes, i am going to be biased towards the Alan King Champion Hurdle winner of last year, but Sizing Europe could have won the race if he had wanted to.
Nothing was wrong with him, there was no injury, he was absolutely sound 10 seconds later, and his trainer and jockey both said there was nothing wrong with him, he just ‘lost his action’.
If he had wanted to go further, he would have, it wasn’t like there was an injury barring him from a strong finish up the run in.
Katchit was a more than deserved winner of the Champion Hurdle in March.
They were considering going chasing with Sizing Europe this season. They have shelved that plan now. I would imagine that has to be because they wanted another tilt at the Champion Hurdle.Although, I believe Henry de Bromhead was always in favour of him staying over hurdles, certainly for this season.
He seemed to be travelling the better of all the protagonists,in the Champion Hurdle,and well within his comfort zone, until he jumped the second last flight and then he lost his action. Denis O’Regan confirmed."The horse lost his action in his off hind." Which is what Andrew McNamara thought and sensibly dropped him out of the race.The confusion arose when they couldn’t find anything physically wrong with him after the race. Horses are like cars they can make liars out of vicars! After the Festival the Racing Post reported …
Sizing Europe, was found to be lame behind, according to his trainer Henry de Bromhead.
The gelding, sent off 2-1 favourite, travelled well down the hill to the home bend but lost his action in the straight and was eased out of the race by jockey Andrew McNamara, almost stopping to a walk.
"He was lame behind in his first four strides coming out of the box this morning," De Bromhead reported yesterday. "I thought I was imagining it, so I put him back in the box and called the vet down to have a look at him two hours later. He did it again, and the vet confirmed it. He found Sizing Europe had torn muscles across his back. I happy we’ve found a reason.
"I’m not saying he would have won, but he’s not stopped like that in a race before," the trainer added.
Racing is, and always will be, a matter of opinions and I am of the opinion that horses don’t feign injury and Sizing Europe lost his action because of injury. Provided he does not get a recurrence of this particular injury he has to be a force to be reckoned with in any hurdle race this season.
Agree completely and 10-1 as an e/w prospect could look like a huge price come the day – for me one of the few horses that has some AP value!
Punjabi ate him alive in Ireland and prior to the 2008 Champion Hurdle almost pulled of the impossible by winning the Tote Gold Trophy carrying top weight.
Yet you’re telling me on another thread on this board that he is capable of winning it this season off a significantly higher mark. Make your mind up. Is it possible to win this off top weight or not? Perhaps you should change your name to Fists of Contradiction.
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