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Not really Mike.
The thread was started about Sir Gino going chasing / Arkle rather than going for the Champion Hurdle. Just one of many that trainers have suggested they’re going chasing when they have a realistic chance of winning the Champion Hurdle… Surely only right to point them out too?… And other horses (mares) with other possible Cheltenham targets rather than the Champion Hurdle.ie Sir Gino is just one of many where the Champion Hurdle could’ve been the target.
Is the Champion Hurdle losing its status?
Or is it because Constitution Hill still might be impossible to beat and connections of rivals are keeping their options open?
Or are those questions too off topic?
Value Is Everything“Is the Champion Hurdle losing its status?”
An important question – and I would argue that it is.
I think it is becoming a thinner division, in a large part due to fewer good Flat horses going hurdling and also by plenty of good novice hurdlers going straight over fences (not surprisingly given their breeding and point to point backgrounds).
Then there is the Mares Hurdle taking good horses away from the race, as trainers and owners prioritise having a Cheltenham winner over going for the (on the face of it) most prestigious race.
There is also the fact of one trainer dominating the game to an unprecedented degree.
And to think the champion hurdle in the early 2000s was the race of the week …. will we see the likes again …
Just when I thought I had got over Harchibald
The more I know the less I understand.
Lol RTB , Harchibald is the fella in the pub getting you into a fight ….then legging it when the punches start flying … He was unique
And Hardy Eustace is the fella who gets hit over the head with a pint glass ….and gets up smiling
Apparently he is set to clash with Ballyburn in the Wayward Lad.
I thought the Christmas Hurdle would be a cakewalk for Sir Gino. Why bother introducing him over fences in a G2?
They’ll switch Sir Gino to fences if everything is going well with Constitution Hill, well I thought everything was going well with Constitution Hill so why the need for a last minute decision?
The more I know the less I understand.
Well with CH you never know so probably prudent to wait until the deadline before making the final decision.
Such a soap opera. Long since stopped listening to what Henderson or anybody connected with the yard have to say. They seem to love the media spotlight, but they say the square root of zilch. Whoever turns up,turns up.
Sir Gino looks a good price for the Wayward Lad IF Ballyburn doesn’t come over
Charles Darwin to conquer the World
Disappointing in my view; wins the Fighting Fifth in decent style, and could/would be a player in the top 2m Hurdles – so they go novice chasing to avoid CH???
It’s still not a great division, despite CH, Lossiemouth, State Man – where are all the others?
“where are all the others?”
Brentford Hope will need a year off after losing to Rubaud, he doesn’t like to battle and will be in bed feeling sorry for himself
Charles Darwin to conquer the World
If Constitution Hill runs poorly in the Christmas Hurdle you might see Sir Gino taken out of the Wayward Lad and still be diverted back to hurdling. That said, the owner still has State Man and that other 2 miler trained by Mullins that begins with “A”… So if CH runs poorly at Kempton the owner might think he’s got the Champion Hurdle winner anyway without Sir Gino…
The thread title is still up in the air.
Value Is EverythingIf CH underperforms do they still go to the Wayward Lad or do they pull him and redirect to the International Hurdle?
If they keep chopping and changing (depending on what CH does or doesn’t do at Kempton and beyond) they could quite easily end up heading to Cheltenham for the Arkle with more hurdling experience than chasing.
I think they will need to quite soon make an actual decision on what sphere he is going to take one way or the other and to me it should be chasing as quite frankly his Fighting Fifth form leaves him a long way off that which is required to win a Champion Hurdle…..reading between the lines I think from his schooling Hendo believes he is a chaser all day long (in a similar vein to Sprinter Sacre).
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