Champion Hurdle 2013

I get what you are trying say Suny but obviously the Champion Hurdle is his most important target but not to the extent he is being trained for only one race like some others may be.

WM has the world at his feet in Ireland because no one has the desire to take him on from across the water but make no mistake it's all about prize money at the end of the day. If WM can manage to Hurricane Fly will of course be at his peak in March.

So far this season Hurricane Fly has taken 86K home and if he can pick up the Irish Champion Hurdle next he'll have about 150k and another 30k or so if he wins the Rabobank in April. That would be a great season and would make any owner happy if he can do that and win the Champion Hurdle (220K) you are talking of winning more money than those 4 put together.

People who have their champion Hurdle prospects with the likes of Nicky Henderson, Alan King, harry Fry and Paul Nichols etc aren't that lucky and it's hard enough for them to win one trial or grade 1 hurdle race let alone 4 so the Champion Hurdle is much more important to them. That of course makes the Champion Hurdle the hardest race to win so those other races are very important to WM as HF is all but guaranteed to win them but not so the Champion Hurdle.
 
Probably not the thread for it, but I'm delighted to see that Solwhit is due to make a return to the track at Punchestown tomorrow, assuming racing goes ahead.

If he gets back to anywhere near his best, Oscar Whisky better take the Pampers with him to Aintree.
 
Tanlic said:
I get what you are trying say Suny but obviously the Champion Hurdle is his most important target but not to the extent he is being trained for only one race like some others may be.

WM has the world at his feet in Ireland because no one has the desire to take him on from across the water but make no mistake it's all about prize money at the end of the day. If WM can manage to Hurricane Fly will of course be at his peak in March.

So far this season Hurricane Fly has taken 86K home and if he can pick up the Irish Champion Hurdle next he'll have about 150k and another 30k or so if he wins the Rabobank in April. That would be a great season and would make any owner happy if he can do that and win the Champion Hurdle (220K) you are talking of winning more money than those 4 put together.

People who have their champion Hurdle prospects with the likes of Nicky Henderson, Alan King, harry Fry and Paul Nichols etc aren't that lucky and it's hard enough for them to win one trial or grade 1 hurdle race let alone 4 so the Champion Hurdle is much more important to them. That of course makes the Champion Hurdle the hardest race to win so those other races are very important to WM as HF is all but guaranteed to win them but not so the Champion Hurdle.
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Shame UK trainers tend not to send their best horses over to Ireland for these pots.
 
I know Mullins had winners last festival but some of his others ran like drains could it have been possible HF wasn't right.

On top of that Ruby even admitted the ride he gave him wasn't the greatest so perhaps the 2 combined got him beat.
 
rather than guess..why not just read HF's form to see why he got beat though Kauto

courtesy of Warbler

Hurricane Fly
4 from 5 off a medium to brisk pace
10 from 10 off a slow pace
0 from 3 off a strong pace

there's your answer imo
 
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i think its a good one tbh..there is evidence there whereas..he wasn't right... doesn't make sense when you look at his runs leading up to the CH and his win yesterday

how anyone can think he's too old is a bit strange to me..he's still poetry in motion..by far the best hurdler to watch...thats when he gets a race that suits him ..he's unbeatable

he is the same horse now as he was last year at this time..he still beats thousand stars just as easily other day as he did last January feb
 
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i'll throw in Oscars Well to also back up the fast pace issue

Yesterday he could have beaten OW probably 10 or 11 lengths off that pace...at Cheltenham when fully asked he beat OW 4 lengths
 
Binocular is planned to go over for the Irish Champion apparently . If he is back on song that will tell us more about where HF is and whether either of them have a realistic prospect of emulating Comedy of Errors.
 
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Thousand Stars is not operating at his best, they are thinking in the french races in Spring

Hurricane doesnt have a single high topspeed figure and the Champion Hurdle will be run at a fast pace.
 
You make some good points EC1. Stats do back up your theory, but personally I buy what Mullins and Walsh are selling when they say he wasnt right last season. I'm not saying he's a lump job, but if he gets there in this form I would have no qualms of having a wedge on, whatever pace it's run at. Basically, he'll have run in one stamina race as you put it, but I believe he wasn't right.
 
While I'd agree that ROR won the race through stamina, I'd have a problem accepting Hurricane Fly lost the race through lack of it.
Ruby said that HF didn't find when asked to pick up coming down the hill, before stamina was likely to be an issue, and his 2/3 over 2.5m, and heavy ground win off a strong pace at Punchestown, all suggest the answer lies elsewhere for his poor run last season.
 
Totally agree Reet a point Kauto posted earlier.........we got the first signs of Hurricane Fly not being right when WM went into panic mode in the parade ring before his run in the Irish Champion Hurdle. He drifted like a barge that day when WM said he wasn't happy with him and although he won easily enough the opposition was crap considering the 2nd had not been at his best for some time. He could be backed at odds against on the machine which was unreal

Compare that to the price he went off at this time round and it has to tell you the vibes are much better concerning him this time round.
 
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there is probably some truth in the theory that he wasnt right last year both in his delayed appearences and also at the festival its fair to say in general mullins horses werent in the rudest of health. Shame perhaps he could have won last seasons CH. but its not a given he would have won if both he and mullins were on song not with the way overturn run and rock on ruby who is not a better horse but i think a stronger stayer he may just have been placed. after all he has never posted a good time figure (as suny stated) nor as EC1 states ever won a race with a fast pace where stamina comes into play.

With stayers like zarakander and rock on ruby and speed horses like darlan and granduet in the field and if there is cut in the ground the possible fly in the ointment oscar whiskey in the field i dont see HF getting his ideal conditions. a speed horse against stayers. Granduet or darlan could do him for toe and zarankander/rock on ruby/whiskey oscar could do him for stamina

oscar whiskey/zarakander v HF could be a repeat of hardy eustace v rooster booster a speed horse to some extent always needs the horse in front to weaken and like rb found if the horse in front keeps up the momentum then the speed horse is stuffed and i cant see either zarakander or oscar whiskey tiring at the finish as they are both stamina horses who can last 2.5 miles
 
Rooster Booster was also getting older and in a slow decline which could also be said of HF- the 2003 version of RB would have gone past Hardy Eustace .
 
I wrote off the good work of the sectional time guys work last year for this race as blasphemy but there is some merit to their work.

I have a gut that come CH day, the hurricane won't be ridden as he was last year
 
Ardross said:
Rooster Booster was also getting older and in a slow decline which could also be said of HF- the 2003 version of RB would have gone past Hardy Eustace .
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That would probably have depended on whether HE got invloved with a scrap with intersky falcon for the early lead i would probably think he would but his winning distance would have been much less

i agree age is not on HF side
 
The only reason Foghorn Leghorn didn't win again in 2004 was because Johnson bottomed him unnecessarily in the TGT. The old fella never ran to form again.
 
Desert Orchid said:
The only reason Foghorn Leghorn didn't win again in 2004 was because Johnson bottomed him unnecessarily in the TGT. The old fella never ran to form again.
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I think this doesn't give enough credit to Conor O'Dwyer for a masterful ride on Hardy Eustace, or the horse himself, who was clearly capable of high-class form at the track, any way I look at it.

As for whether Rooster Booster was "bottomed" in the Tote Gold Trophy, I have my doubts. He had run in plenty of very competitive handicaps before that Champion Hurdle, and none of them put a mark on the horse. The fact is, Hardy won from a brilliant front-running ride, and Rooster Booster didn't have the race run particularly to suit. It's also my opinion that there was a little bit of the "not today, thank you" about RB's performance (and I say that as someone who loves the horse).

My memory of that TGT effort was that it had put him spot-on for the Festival - not that he'd left the Champion Hurdle behind in it.
 
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