Cheltenham International Hurdle 2012

[Rhinestone Cowboy]

Zarkandar getting 4lbs from the other two hotpots

HORSE AGE WGT TRAINER RTF% JOCKEY OR TS RPR
1 1F11- Grandouet371 5 11-8 Nicky Henderson 166 — —
2 1213- Rock On Ruby245 7 11-8 Harry Fry Noel Fehily 170 173 177
3 15F-1 Zarkandar35 5 11-4 Paul Nicholls 168 169 174
4 P1/111 Albert Hall100F 7 11-0 A Chaille-Chaille 124 — —
5 81-R30 Mad Moose21 8 11-0 Nigel Twiston-Davies 139 131 151
6 2776-P Minella Theatre7 9 11-0 Lawney Hill 111 — —
7 572393 One Cool Shabra14 4 11-0 Patrick O Brady 132 134 145
8 674225 Red Riverman49 4 11-0 Nigel Twiston-Davies 120 112 134
9 138-1 Rose Of The Moon42 7 11-0 David O΄Meara — 50 101

[Old Vic]

Good race for favourites

http://www.fatjockey.com/festivals/racing_festivals.php?International-Hurdle-Cheltenham-old-Bula-trends-133

[mayo]

Donn

In 2009, six British one Irish; in 2010, eight British one Irish; in 2011, seven British one Irish. You couldn’t exactly call it international. They probably should have left Bula where he was and then the race wouldn’t be known as the race formerly known as the Bula.

Try to get used to calling it the International though, it is here to stay, and it is a race that is usually a huge pointer to the top of the two-mile hurdling tree. Rooster Booster won the (here goes) International in 2002, and went back to Cheltenham the following March to win the Champion Hurdle. Harchibald won the International in 2005 just nine months after he had gone that close in the Champion. Detroit City won it in 2006, then won the Agfa Hurdle and was sent off the 6/4 favourite for the Champion.

Osana and Katchit finished first and second in the International in 2007, and they filled the first two places in the Champion Hurdle as well three months later in reverse order. Binocular won the International in 2008, when it was run at Ascot, and finished third in the Champion three months later, going down by a neck and a head to Punjabi and Celestial Halo. Khyber Kim won the International in 2009, then finished second to 2009 International winner Binocular in the Champion Hurdle.

Last year’s International winner Grandouet hasn’t run since, but he is back for more tomorrow in a race that is shaping up to be just about the best two-mile hurdle run this season, with last season’s Champion Hurdle winner Rock On Ruby and 2011 Triumph Hurdle winner and 2012 Betfair Hurdle winner Zarkandar set to take him on.

Zarkandar may have the edge this time. He receives 4lb from his two main rivals, and he has had a run this term, whereas the other pair haven’t. Actually, Grandouet hasn’t run in a year.

Lack of a recent run is not the disadvantage these days that it used to be, we know that top trainers like Nicky Henderson can get his horses to fly on their seasonal debuts, but there was something about Zarkandar’s defeat of Prospect Wells in the Elite Hurdle. He was weak in the market, he was conceding 17lb to his stable companion and he was rejected by Ruby Walsh, but he dug deep to get home by a neck.

Winner of the Betfair Hurdle under 11st 1lb on his seasonal debut last season, and a running-on fifth in the Champion Hurdle as a whipper-snapper five-year-old (only one five-year-old has won the Champion Hurdle since See You Then in 1985) last March after a rushed preparation, there is a sense that this could be Zarkandar’s year. It is correct that he is favourite to win the International tomorrow, you could argue that he is value at 5/4, and, if he does, current odds of 8/1 about him for the Champion Hurdle could look very big indeed.

[Old Vic]

Barry G

There’s no question which one has the harder task - it’s Grandouet who comes up against the reigning Champion Hurdler Rock On Ruby in the International Hurdle.

Both are having their first outings of the season and on the face of it Grandouet has the harder task because he’s been off for just over a year - his last outing being when he won this race in 2011.

But it’s not quite as straightforward as that because he was on course for last season’s Champion Hurdle and only went amiss shortly before the Cheltenham Festival and he’s done plenty of good work going into this.

He’s been to Kempton for a spin and I was very pleased with him when I rode him a bit of work last weekend and he felt very well when I gave him a pipe-opener on Friday morning.

Make no mistake, I’m giving Rock On Ruby all the respect that’s due to a reigning Champion Hurdler but I’m expecting a really bold show from my lad on ground that he should handle ok.

And it’s not all about Rock On Ruby because his old stablemate Zarkandar will be a serious problem getting 4lb from us both because that puts him ahead on official figures.

[gigginstown]

This is the only interesting race at Cheltenham tomorrow...disappointing show in rest

[mayo]

This column has been mustard

Not all of Nicky Henderson's team were entirely convinced that Grandouet was their number one hope for the Champion Hurdle when injury forced him out of the reckoning for last season's race.

He sustained quite a bad infection in a hind leg, which required some surgery to fully clean the wound out, but the extra time off seems to have done him the power of good at home. He looks stronger and his recent work - including two racecourse gallops to blow away the cobwebs - has been excellent.

Indeed, even those within the yard who weren't fully convinced about Grandouet now seem to have seen the light because he is widely considered the stable's number one Champion Hurdle hope.

Testing ground won't be ideal for him in the International Hurdle (nor, it must be said will it be for Rock on Ruby or Zarkandar), but he should be fit enough to go very close first time out.

[Old Vic]

Handicappers view

18th December 2012 - ZARKANDAR ROCKS THE CHAMPION
ZARKANDAR ROCKS THE CHAMPION

The latest meeting at Cheltenham saw the return of reigning Champion Hurdler Rock On Ruby in what proved the most compelling clash of the season so far over timber. Dave Dickinson gives his take on the form and the significance of Zarkandar’s success with a view to the main event in March. Martin Greenwood comments on the latest standings in the novice staying division after watching Coneygree win again, whilst we also take a moment to mark the final meeting at the now-closed Hereford.

CHAMPION CLUES

Quite how much influence the result of Saturday’s Stan James.com International Hurdle may have on the Champion Hurdle come March given the prevailing conditions is open to debate but surely connections of the three main protagonists will all have taken heart from the performance of their horses at the weekend, writes David Dickinson.

Zarkandar backed up his Wincanton lifetime best (on figures at least) by winning again in receipt of 4lb from his main rivals. Last year Grandouet won this race in receipt of 4lb from the subsequent Champion Hurdle runner-up Overturn before meeting with a setback. A year on, he returned to the track in defeat but given his concession of weight to the winner he comes out of the race as the best horse on the day. Current Champion Hurdler Rock On Ruby was hardly disgraced either on his first run since Grand National day, looking the likely winner for much of the long run from two out to the last only to flatten that flight and appear to blow up on the run in.

I have used Grandouet as my marker horse reproducing last year’s 166, which means Zarkandar has not had to run to the 168 he achieved at Wincanton (Prospect Wells has subsequently let that form down but the third, Balder Succes, has franked it). I have left Rock On Ruby on the 170 he achieved in March and was a little surprised to hear quotes as long as 12/1 for a repeat in the immediate aftermath of the race. Such quotes fly in the face of statistics if nothing else, as the title has been successfully defended eleven times since 1968.

Small fields in conditions races is a perennial subject, so well done to Middleham Park Racing for providing two of Saturday’s seven-runner field. In finishing fourth and fifth, the duo (Mad Moose and Minella Theatre) picked up over £10,000 for connections. I have Minella Theatre running to a figure in the mid 120’s (he went into the race rated 111) having beaten a couple of higher rated opponents. However, on reflection I decided that the reason for this was that his stamina came into play in a pretty truly run race. I have therefore, left his mark unchanged. So, between the two horses, a five figure sum pocketed and not a single pound rise in their handicap marks, the stuff that dreams are made of!

[mayo]

Not for the first time find myself agreeing with Donn. There was something about this race reminded me of the Cleeve Hurdle where Big Bucks beat Punchestowns getting 4 or 5 lbs. Wouldnt surprise me if Darlan is better than them all though.

Immediate reaction after Saturday’s Stanjames.com International Hurdle at Cheltenham? Grandouet ran the best Champion Hurdle trial. Mature reflection? Zarkandar did.

You can see the reasoning behind the Grandouet case. For starters, even taking the bare form of the race and adjusting for weights and measures, Grandouet was beaten two lengths by Zarkandar conceding 4lb to him. That makes him the best horse in the race on the day. Grandouet earned a Racing Post Rating of 162 for finishing second while Zarkandar earned a Racing Post Rating of 161 for winning the race. Easy.

As well as that, Grandouet was making his seasonal debut, he was actually appearing on a racecourse for the first time in exactly 12 months, whereas Zarkandar had already had a run this term. Race-fitness was of premium importance on what was genuinely heavy ground by whatever barometer you chose to use (official descriptions, race times, jockeys’ opinions).

Add to that the fact that Grandouet had to challenge up the run-in away from the stands rail, while Zarkandar had the rail to help him and raced on what is generally considered to be the fastest part of the run-in at Cheltenham when the ground is soft. And the fact that Grandouet is thought to be more of a speed horse than Zarkandar, and that the International is run on the new course at Cheltenham, over two miles and a furlong, while the Champion Hurdle is run on the old course, where the minimum trip is two miles and half a furlong. You can see the reasoning all right.

Grandouet is a really likeable sort, he was a real live Champion Hurdle contender last year as a five-year-old before injury intervened, and there is no doubt that he is a classy hurdler, but it might be a mistake to conclude that he has a better chance of winning the Champion Hurdle now than Zarkandar has.

Crucially, Saturday’s race was never going to be run in such a way as to play to Zarkandar’s strengths. It is true that he stays two miles well, he is a Triumph Hurdle winner, and in order to win a race at the Cheltenham Festival as a juvenile, you can’t be deficient in the stamina department. You couldn’t have been sure that Saturday’s race wasn’t going to be run at a crawl, so Ruby Walsh really had no option but to make or at the very least force the pace.

But that isn’t really Zarkandar’s style. Paul Nicholls’s horse is probably at his best when he is held up in among horses off a strong pace, as he proved when he won that Triumph Hurdle, and when he won the Betfair Hurdle last February. It wasn’t surprising that he came under pressure on the run down the hill – the same thing happened even earlier in the Triumph Hurdle – or even that Rock On Ruby passed him on the run to the second last. He is a horse who finds plenty for pressure, and you always knew that he was going to respond.

Grandouet ran a cracker to finish second, Barry Geraghty rode him for speed, and he was the least animated rider of the three on the run to the final flight. That said, it never really looked like he was going to get to Zarkandar, and you have to think that, if he had found the two lengths by which he was ultimately beaten, Zarkandar would have found one or two more as well.

Rock On Ruby wasn’t disgraced in third either and, last year’s Champion Hurdle hero, the market probably over-reacted to his defeat initially by pushing him out to 12/1 for a repeat performance in March. He has settled down around the 8/1 and 10/1 marks now, and that is probably about right. The Harry Fry-trained gelding will improve for this, you can be sure, but he does have to improve by more than the two who beat him do, and you can be sure that there is plenty more to come from the two five-year-olds as well.

Of the trio, Zarkandar is still the most likely Champion Hurdle winner for me. Nicholls will put him away now, apparently, and bring him back probably for the Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton in February, which will, all going well, be his springboard to the Champion Hurdle. A running-on fifth in the race last year as a mere five-year-old on the back of an interrupted preparation, he should be much better equipped for a Champion Hurdle this term as a six-year-old. Also, with normal luck, he should enjoy a better preparation this time than last.

That fifth-place in finish in last year’s Champion is the only time that Zarkandar has suffered defeat in seven completed runs over hurdles. That winning habit is a good habit, and he should be a major player this year.

[Hoof]

From stanjames blog

Two days after his 26th birthday, Harry Fry gives us the latest from his yard starting with his reflections on Rock On Ruby's third place in last Saturday's StanJames.com International Hurdle.

Rock On Ruby

The more time has passed, the more happy we are with the way he ran. Obviously, you'd always like to win races like that but when it came down to it on that ground which was not ideal – the most testing he'd encountered – it was a very good run. He travelled down the hill like the best horse in the race – he had Zarkandar off the bridle at the top of the hill – and just turning in he got caught out with the lack of a recent run which you need to have at that sort of level on that ground.

In fairness, I don't think even 12 months ago he'd have run a race like that on that sort of ground. In a funny sort of way, I think he nearly came away with more credit on Saturday than when he actually won the Champion Hurdle as it's banished the thought that it was a fluke because he travelled so well for a long way. What it turned into was a real stamina test so, on better ground, we're very confident about his chances come March.

Having reflected on it, we'd probably benefit from having a prep race which at this stage is looking like the Kingwell. There's also a contenders' hurdle at Sandown at the beginning of February which would give us a bit more time to Cheltenham but we'll just see how he is. The most important thing is he seems to have come out of the race in one piece and actually we couldn't have hoped for him to come out of the race any better. He's eaten up and he's fresh and well which is good news.

In the TV coverage on the day, there was a clip of him winning the Champion Hurdle and his hurdling is much slicker and quicker on better ground. What caught him out more than anything on the Saturday was his wind. He's had two wind operations and those conditions are going to find out any weaknesses whether they've been fixed or not. On better ground, it's not a problem because you're not being pushed to quite the same extremities. That's why we'd always had reservations about running on that sort of ground but we needed to start somewhere and he coped admirably with it. Everyone came away full of confidence, not least Noel (Fehily) who felt he was bigger and stronger and better than ever.

I'd definitely be confident of reversing the form in March and I'm sure all three are going to be there or thereabouts. The 12/1 he went out to was massive and we snapped it up as quickly as we could. Zarkandar came in and we went out but you could have made a case for it being the other way because what Saturday showed you was a real staying performance from the winner which may have proved he was less like a Champion Hurdle horse. Paul (Nicholls) will have his sights set on the Champion Hurdle but the Aintree Hurdle looks well up his street and he could even be a World Hurdle contender especially with Big Buck's out of the way.

Grandouet obviously travelled well and had his turn of foot blunted by the conditions. On Saturday's performance, he's the one to fear come March because that was a great run off a 12-month lay-off and his turn of speed will come into play on better ground. Nicky Henderson said the lack of a recent run just did for him although of course he'd had a racecourse gallop 10 days previously. We hadn't because for us it's all about March and that's where we really want to be at our best. Obviously, we'll see Hurricane Fly over Christmas and if he is back to his best he's going to be very hard to beat again but if Grandouet gets to the Champion in one piece he'll be a big danger.