Big Buck's tops World Hurdle entries

Big Buck's

Big Buck’s may be the prime contender for the role of banker bet for this year’s Cheltenham Festival but that news has clearly not filtered through to other yards.

The eight-year-old has won the Ladbrokes World Hurdle for the past two seasons and goes into this year’s renewal with the longest current unbeaten record in the sport but that has not deterred 45 others entries being made.

Inglis Drever, 2005-08, was the first horse to win the World Hurdle three times since it was first run in 1972 but Big Big Buck’s would become the first horse to win the championship contest for three consecutive years.

Big Buck’s, who has developed into then most dominant horse of his generation, is unbeaten in his last 10 starts, all over hurdles since being unseated in the 2008 Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury, and won his fifth Grade One with an imperious performance in the rescheduled Long Walk Hurdle at Newbury at the end of December.

While it is hard to see any of the horses who have been put in their place, some quite regularly, by Big Buck’s over the past couple seasons but there are few new names that could make things interesting. Punchestowns, who was one-and-three-quarter lengths second to Big Buck’s in the 2009 World Hurdle has been running over fences since and is due to run in the Aon Chase at Newbury next month. No decision is likely to be made before then if he reverts to hurdles or takes up entries for either the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup and Ryanair Chase.

Another horse who could enter calculations is Solwhit, a six-times Grade One winner for Charles Byrnes, who is running in the Grade One BHP Insurances Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown. Solwhit will be taking on Hurricane Fly who has become something of a nemesis, winning each of their last three meetings. Byrnes has the horse entered for the Stan James Champion Hurdle as well but could give the meeting a miss completely. He said: “Probably more Aintree than Cheltenham at this stage. Naturally we have entered him at Cheltenham but I’d say we’re looking more at Aintree.”

Trainer Robin Dickin is hopeful that Restless Harry can prove himself worth a run a the Festival with a good performance in the Grade Two Cleeve Hurdle on Festival Trials day at Cheltenham later this month.

The seven-year-old won the Grade Two Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle on Festival Trials day last year before falling at the last when still in contention in the Grade One Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle at the Festival itself. On his latest start, Restless Harry stayed on to finish third behind Big Buck’s and Lough Derg in the Long Walk. ”Restless Harry runs in the Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham on Saturday week and I’m hopeful that he can run a big race,” Dickin said. “He’s tremendously well in himself and we always said that we would remain over hurdles this season because of his limited mileage. 

“All we saw was the fog when he ran at Newbury but Lough Derg is a top-class horse on his day and it was far from a disgrace to go down by a head to him. There are probably four or five horses that are quite evenly matched behind Big Buck’s but you should never be scared of taking on one horse - who would have thought that Kauto Star would have got beaten on Saturday?

“It’s not his fault that he is competing in the top staying hurdles but when you run in those kind of races, then you are bound to take on champions like Big Buck’s.”

Paul Wheeler

Follow us on Facebook here

Follow our Bettorracing updates on twitter