5 Cheltenham questions from the weekend……

Is Hurricane Fly good enough to win the Champion Hurdle?….

I hope so. He was the best novice of last season and great things were expected from him this year but he was beaten fair and square on Sunday by what looks an improving horse. However, I wouldn’t be too keen to write him off just yet as the Champion Hurdle in March will be a totally different race to the one we saw yesterday. A small field, a slow early pace and heavy ground is about as far away from the likely conditions of the big race as you could get and about as far from the ideal conditions Hurricane Fly would require. Don’t throw those Ante-Post tickets away just yet!

Is Solwhit?….

Definitely. Solwhit forced himself into the Champion Hurdle reckoning with what was an eye catching performance. He too probably wasn’t suited by the slow early pace but he acquitted himself very well and showed an excellent turn of foot in the sticky ground to run out a convincing winner. He is now a winner of 6 of his 7 starts, including 3 straight Grade 1 races, and seems to be getting better the more he races. It will be interesting to see how he gets on in a rematch with Hurricane Fly on faster ground but what isn’t in doubt is his stamina. A winner over 2m 4f and on heavy ground the Cheltenham hill will hold no worries for him and he has to be high on anyone’s list for Cheltenham’s blue riband hurdle event.

Is Dunguib?…..

Probably not. The run of Hurricane Fly surely shows just how hard it is to go from being a top novice hurdler to a Champion Hurdle contender. Yes Dunguib was impressive again on Saturday but he’s still only had two runs over hurdles and hasn’t beaten a horse of any great merit just yet. At odds of 1/7 and 2/13 he has only won as he was expected to and I think connections will probably stick to the novice route this year, leaving any thoughts of the Champion Hurdle to the 2010/11 Season.

Has Master Minded gone backwards since his explosive 2008 Champion Chase win….

That’s probably a bit harsh on this great horse but he hasn’t exuded the same class and domination of the 2 milers since his blistering run in the 2008 Champion Chase. With new pretender on the block Big Zeb posting an impressive win first time out and old timer Well Chief getting his revenge on Master Minded yesterday I don’t think the top rated horse in Europe is going to have it all his own way this season. I would imagine the trainers of Planet of Sound, Forpadydeplasterer and Voy Por Ustedes will all be itching to have a crack at the Champ and they won’t be ducking any fights pre-Cheltenham with their charges. The 2 mile Chase Crown is now up for grabs.

Tataniano or Sizing Europe for the Arkle?….

With the senior 2 mile chasing division now looking wide open there’s also a lot to look forward to from the novice section with a whole host of high class recruits to the fencing game. With Somersby, Crack Away Jack, Cousin Vinny, Mikael de Haguenet and Osana just some of the big names from hurdling set to contest the Arkle we could be in for one helluva race. Two other good hurdlers who have already laid down their marker for top honours are Tataniano and Sizing Europe. Both posted impressive performances over the weekend and currently head the betting for the Arkle but given the quality of some of the horses waiting in the wings I wouldn’t be in any hurry to back either of them just yet. The one horse I’m eagerly awaiting to see over fences is the 2008 Supreme Novices Hurdle winner Captain Cee Bee, who beat none other than Binocular that day. He’s been out injured since breaking a blood vessel and pulling up at Aintree the same year but if he’s back to his best the 25/1 on offer could look very big come March…..

Good luck,
Gavin.