World Hurdle next for Big Buck's

Big Buck's

The Cheltenham racecourse executive might find themselves with a bumper entry for the Cleeve Hurdle at the end of the month.

The Grade Two hurdle is one of the highlights of the track's Festival Trials Day card but may be even more enticing to potential runners with the news that the horse who has become their collective nemesis will not be running.

Big Buck's, the horse who has reigned supreme in the staying division, will now not be running in the race and will instead head straight to the Ladbrokes World Hurdle in March, a race he will be attempting to win for the third successive season.

Such is his current level of superiority that the markets suggest such an outcome borders on a formality. His last run, in the Grade One Long Walk Hurdle that was rescheduled for Newbury last week, may have been run in a thick fog but nothing could shroud the way that Tony McCoy was able to toy with rivals who could easily form the cream of a World Hurdle field and won by six lengths with insouciant ease.

The horse's trainer, Paul Nicholls, had suggested possibly running in the Cleeve but, writing on betfair.com, he said: "I have had a discussion with Andy Stewart this morning and we have decided that Big Buck's will sidestep the Cleeve Hurdle and go straight to the Cheltenham Festival.

"Taking in the Cleeve Hurdle was our original plan. But he will be given a break instead and his campaign with now mirror last season's, with the Cheltenham and Aintree Festivals as his next targets.

"I just thought it best to let everyone know as soon as possible."

Big Buck's has been a revelation since switching from fences to hurdles and is now unbeaten in his 10 starts. By comparison Credit Swap has much more to prove, but he made a promising beginning at Leicester.

The six-year-old, who won the Cambridgeshire at Newmarket for Michael Wigham, made a winning debut over hurdles and for trainer Venetia Williams in the Widmerpool Novices' Hurdle. Kept of the early pace by Aidan Coleman, Credit Swap came through in the home straight to lead at the last and win by four-and-a-half lengths, eased down.

"He hasn't been switching off at home which was the only worry because, reading his Flat form, he was always dropped in, and he can be quite keen," Coleman said. "But today he was good. They've done a great job at home on him, getting him relaxed and he really enjoys his jumping. Her loves going to the schooling field so, hopefully he'll do as good at this game as he did on the Flat.

"There were some novicey jumps but unlike a first-time-out horse, where you give them a bit of light, I had him really buried in just to get him settled. He was thrown in the deep end a bit to be fair. Hopefully he'll get a bit further in time - but he's not slow either."

The progress has been slow for Autumn Red but the persistence of his owners and trainer Paul Webber paid off - at the 19th time of asking - when he won the Happy 18th Birthday Georgina Stevenson Handicap Chase.

"He was second to Hobbs Hill in his first bumper and he's been second six times," Webber said. "He should probably have gone point-to-pointing four years ago but sometimes fairytales happen at Leicester on a Tuesday."

Paul Wheeler

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