Big Bucks

Great to here he's on his way back.

To be frank Grassy Solwhit might touch his ass on the way round but if BB returns as good as he was there can be only one result imo.

What you should be asking yourself what price will he be for the word hurdle if he wins easily on his return?

Currently easy to back at 4/1 he'll be what 4/6 4/7 less? if he comes back with a bang.
Then a wise punter who took the 4/1 wouldn't give avhoot from abetting point of view if Solwhit beat him out of sight.

Big Bucks could be the best back to lay opportunity of the coming season.
 
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Few horses win the same Festival race five years on the spin.

Surely the question should be why did Big Bucks never drop to 2m 4f for the Aintree Hurdle or head to Punchestown where Nicholls and co knew he'd be facing off against the mare?

Or for that matter why did they not return to France with him?

Martin
 
Big Buck's could return in the Cleeve Hurdle according to RP. He'll parade at Nicholls Owners Open Day Sept 1st and Chepstow on_Oct 12th.
 
Certainly not scared of giving him time if they aren't going to run him until the end of January despite him being back in training in August (that or they're worried about his legs).
 
granger said:
I hope we find out for sure Grass.
Click to expand...

One of my principal hopes for the new season, granger, is that BB and Solwhit both make it to the World Hurdle in good order - even if they have limited runs under their belts. Unfortunately, history suggests that connections of Quevega will wait until Punchestown before unleashing her over 3m, which means no Big Buck's and potentially an under-cooked Solwhit (assumes he has a full campaign next season, with other targets being more important).

The real shame is that circumstance has robbed us of a three-way contest until all three are into their dotage career-wise, and we may never see them contest the same race regardless. Putting BB to one side for a moment, I suspect that the question of who's best between Solwhit and Quevega will never truly be answered on the race-course, and that we will go to our graves arguing the toss between the pair.

I'm actually fine with that. :lol:
 
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Has to find a sizeable chunk of improvement, I'd say, and would likely get chinned by all three for turn-of-foot in a Stayers Hurdle.

He's a Bachannal or Behrajan, rather than a Baracouda. :cool:
 
Regression always a possibility at their ages; though there's a case to be made that all three are relatively lightly-raced; for differing reasons.

At Fishers Cross is no mug, it's true, but he has a stone improvement to find to be troubling Big Buck's (and not much less insofar as Solwhit is concerned - my view), and will always have to give the weight away to Quevega. The three principals would need to regress a fair degree, and AFC would need to improve a bit at the same time, to make it interesting.

To be fair, if age is a factor, the form of the top horses does tend to fall off a cliff, which would obviously contribute towards any narrowing of the gap. And who knows if BB will return in the kind of form we've routinely witnessed over the years anyway. You never can tell with horses who've had time off with injury - which makes Byrnes handling of Solwhit last season all the more remarkable.

Whilst I can't write-off AFC, I'd rather take my chances at the same price with BB - though Solwhit is naturally my pick at twice the price of either. The horse has been under-rated his entire career; a fact reflected in the ante-post market for the Stayers. :cool:
 
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Why wouldn't he? He had two runs before the last Festival, and that was after nearly two years off the track. A five-race campaign that included wins in the Stayers and Aintree Hurdles, plus a second-place in a French Champion Hurdle, suggests he is well over whatever injury he was carrying in 2012.
 
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