Another great weekend of racing, thankfully the weather was a bit kinder on us racing fans than it has been and we saw some good action on both sides of the Irish Sea. Champion Hurdle wise we saw two live contenders out this weekend as well as a big priced outsider and all three won. Melodic Rendezvous is the outsider I talk of but he loves the soft ground we are seeing at the moment and saw off Zarkandar over at Wincanton on Saturday, providing me with one of two winners tipped up on my weekend preview. Scott's hurdler looks set to line up at Cheltenham for the Champion Hurdle, for which he is a 20/1 chance, but even given soft ground at the festival the field looks so stacked with quality this year I can't really see MR even getting a place. He would need too many of the big guns to underperform on the day and while he has been impressive this season I feel he lacks the quality required to get really competitive in one of the most eagerly anticipated Champion Hurdles ever. Still I doff my hat to Jeremy Scott who has brought his hurdler back from an injury earlier and there will be plenty of other races for MR to win, just not the Champion Hurdle IMO.
Now onto Willie Mullin's intriguing contender Un De Sceaux who was out at Gowran Park on Saturday. While once again not beating much UDS won on Saturday as easily as odds of 1/14 suggested he would, although I would advise caution over betting on him ante-post for the Champion Hurdle. The two times Willie Mullins has won the race with Hurricane Fly the race was won in 3 mins 54 secs and 3 mins 59 secs. However when Rock On Ruby took the victory 2 renewals ago the time was a quicker 3 mins 50 secs, possibly indicating Hurricane Fly prefers to quicken off a slower run race rather than a proper gallop from the off. If Mullins thinks that a slower run race would be more benificial to Hurricane Fly's overall winning chance then the presence of front running Un De Sceaux in the race would certainly not be advisable and it looks like the trainer has been cautious today regarding talk of lining up UDS at Cheltenham. I wouldn't be too surprised if he gave the race a miss this year to give the Fly as big a chance at winning a third Champion Hurdle title as possible, although obviously that won't be the official line!
Finally we also saw Nicky Henderson's My Tent Or Yours running in a jumpers bumper at Kempton Park on Sunday. Henderson didn't want to give his star hurdler a tough race in heavy going so gave the grass a miss and headed for the all-weather, where AP McCoy guided MTOY's to a solid victory were he quickened nicely in the home straight. Henderson was very pleased post-race, describing the outing as "perfect" and he heads to the Champion Hurdle now where he is a 9/2 chance for glory. It also looks like MTOY will have the services of McCoy come March as he appears to be favouring him over Jezki, although AP maintains he hasn't made a decision yet.
Stepping up in distance and going over the larger obstacles now...Captain Chris was very impressive at Ascot on Saturday taking the Betfair Chase in great fashion, another winner for the weekend preview :D. Although his form is vastly superior going right handed it looks like trainer Philip Hobbs is set to send Captain Chris to Cheltenham for the Gold Cup, for which he is a 25/1 shot. CC has won at the course before but his form going left handed isn't a patch on his best going right-handed and in a race where you cannot afford to give an inch I can't be having CC on my mind. If the Gold Cup was run on a right-handed course I would fancy CC to have a solid e/w chance, but he drops at least 1/2 a stone in ratings when he goes left handed and that's not 1/2 a stone he can afford to lose in a Gold Cup!
There were plenty more performances of note over the weekend; It was great to see Dunguib, Champion Bumper winner way back in 2009, record his first victory for three years. Dunguib has been plagued by injury in recent times so hopefully Philip Fenton has managed to sort these troubles out and we can look forward to seeing Dunguib return to Cheltenham this year in a handicap, either the County hurdle or the Coral Cup.
David Pipe's French recruit Un Temps Pour Tout was an impressive winner at Ascot and certainly improved on his British debut with the step up in trip appearing to very much suit. He is now a 16/1 shot for Neptune glory in March for which Ireland expects Faugheen to romp home. Ireland could well go into recession if this one doesn't come in such is the support behind him!
Teaforthree, while not winning at the weekend, has been slashed into as short as 10/1 for Grand National glory after his run behind Restless Harry at Ascot. This was much more impressive than his run in the Welsh National and he will carry 5lbs less at Aintree this year than when 3rd last year...so much for Phil Smith raising the weights using the Aintree factor! He looks to have a great chance in the Grand National but 10/1 at this stage is short enough.
This week we will be building up to the Kempton Park Chase at the weekend, and Tuesday will mark three weeks until the start of the Cheltenham Festival...the famous roar greeting the Supreme Novice's Hurdle is getting really close now! I doubt we will see too many Cheltenham clues on the track now so it's time to get the form book out and start studying, although who knows what the ground will be at Presbury Park come the 11th of March. Well it'll probably be called good to soft but what it will ride like is anyones guess!
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