BHA Handicappers' Blog: Champion Hurdle Hopefuls

Somewhat surprisingly Zaynar hardened in the 2010 Champion Hurdle betting after landing the odds of 1/5 in the 2m4f Unicoin Homes Relkeel Hurdle at Cheltenham on Saturday, writes Martin Greenwood.

Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not suggesting that Nicky Henderson's charge won't win the Blue Riband event next March, but to take notice of a race that told us precisely nothing more about him suggests an overreaction by the bookmakers.

Possibly the result of the Boylesports Hurdle earlier in the day [see below] had something to do with the revised quotes, because all Zaynar - whose dam Zainta is from the family of Arc winner Zarkava - had to do was turn up fit and healthy to dispose of rivals rated considerably inferior to him on official BHA figures.

Other than having to be nudged along approaching the last, Zaynar soon flew clear and had six lengths to spare over the 145-rated Cape Tribulation, with the 124-rated Night Orbit (received 8 lbs) only a further 13 1/2 lengths back in fourth.

Unbeaten in his five starts over hurdles, including the Triumph at the National Hunt Festival in March, this gelding's best form to date remains his defeat of Karabak (BHA 153) at Ascot in November, in a race just a fraction short of 2m4f.

That performance is currently worth a figure in the low 160's, so he has still a few pounds to find with other Champion Hurdle contenders. That is, of course, entirely feasible - but it remains to be seen whether the drop back to the minimum two-mile trip will see him in the same light...

JUST CHAMPION?
Speaking of the Champion Hurdle, the Grade Two Boylesports.com International Hurdle on the same card may have muddied the picture still further by adding another candidate to the lengthening list of hopefuls in the form of Khyber Kim.

'KK' had always appeared at his best first time out over hurdles but Saturday's race showed him to be a very different horse to the one who failed to make the first 20 in last season's County Hurdle off a mark of just 144.

His latest mark of 165 does not look to flatter him in the slightest, indeed had Celestial Halo jumped the last flight more fluently it may have helped not hindered the winner as he probably hit the front too soon.

If Khyber Kim can be persuaded to maintain this level of form he is a leading player come March.

He reportedly may head for the Totesport off his new mark of 165, a mark off which Celestial Halo won a handicap at Wincanton on his seasonal debut.

On a slightly less positive note this would put anything below 139 out of the handicap proper for the Newbury showpiece and the top weight in next Saturday's Ladbroke is rated just 140.

BHA Handicappers' Blog: Novice Chasers and a Deep Impact

There was plenty of interesting action in the novice chasing division this week, writes Stephen Hindle.

Star northern-trained six-year-old horse Knockara Beau maintained his good start over fences with what was more like an exercise than a race in the John Smith's Paris Pike Novices' Chase (2m6f110y) at Kelso on Sunday (6th December). Sent off at prohibitive odds of 1/8, he didn't have to come under any real pressure to coast clear for an 18-length victory ahead of the 115-rated Calin Royal, making his record over fences 3 wins from 4 starts.

Knockara Beau's one defeat over fences came at Cheltenham on his previous start, where he went down by only a neck to Weird Al (BHA rating 140), conceding him 8lb. The form was later franked at the same track, where Weird Al emerged from the fog with a 2-length victory over Pigeon Island in the Cheltenham Collection Noves' Chase (2m5f) on Friday.

In terms of the merit of their performances, I left Knockara Beau unchanged on 147, as he was entitled to win as smoothly he did. Weird Al, however, receives a small rise to 144 after a seemingly slightly improved effort under his penalty.

As good a type of performer as those two novice chases attracted, they didn't have graded status, unlike the December Novices' Chase (3m) at Lingfield on Saturday, where Burton Port made it two out of two over fences with a comfortable three-length success over Massasoit, with their sole rival Bench Warrent (BHA 132) a further 10 lengths back.

There has been talk in the press recently about a dwindling number of runners in novice chases, one of the main reasons being connections' apparent reluctance to have their handicap marks ruined by finishing close up behind a higher-rated rival. In this race, as with many others, that concern proved to be false: I elected not to change any of the three runners' official marks - not even the winner, Burton Port, who remains on 145.

You can read more about this issue in our Head of Handicapping Phil Smith's Blog.

In terms of more experienced chasers, Deep Purple put in a career best to land the totesport.com Peterborough Chase (2m4f110y) at Huntingdon on Thursday.

Out of the first two only twice in ten starts over the larger obstacles, Deep Purple earned the lofty rating of 166 in the Grade 2 event with a six-length victory over Tartak, who himself deserves credit for clawing his way up to second following a few jumping errors and whose official BHA rating goes from 149 to 150.

The big handicap chase was at Cheltenham, namely the boylesports.com Gold Cup (2m5f) on Saturday, won this year by Poquelin. A month on from his second in the Paddy Power, Poquelin had little trouble going one better, always lurking with intent and drawing away to beat Razor Royale by seven lengths - and earning himself a 10lb rise in the ratings from 151 to 161 in the process. The Ryanair Chase is reportedly his aim.

Five of the Best- Charlie Longsdon: The Rising 'Don

Trainer: Charlie Longsdon
Nationality: British
Stable Name: Hull Farm Stables, Oxfordshire
Stable Jockey/Jockeys: Sam Thomas/Tom Scudamore


"Paul Nicholls is the undisputed king of jump trainers and he has nominated Charlie Longsdon to be his long term successor". A glowing tribute indeed to one of the rising stars in the sport of racing.

Charlie has enjoyed a solid start to life as a national hunt trainer winning a respectable 50 races over his first three years. Charlie continues to impress as he rises through the ranks and was proudly rewarded when receiving the trophy for the Gloucestershire’s Trainers Championship 2008/09.

This then lead to Charlie and his team moving to the bigger, purpose built Hull Farm earlier this year. The yard can boast some of the most exciting state of the art facilities which are designed to aid his trainees in enhancing their performance on race days.

Having always had the ambition of being a racehorse trainer, Charlie knew that it was important to gain valuable experience at a young age, and did so with Oliver Sherwood and Nigel Twiston-Davies. After his time as a student at University he then went on to be assistant trainer at Kim Bailey’s yard before in 2001 joining Nicky Henderson at Seven Barrows.

During his time with Nicky, Charlie won the 'Alex Scott Memorial Fund Assistant Trainer’s Scholarship' in 2004. This in turn then took Charlie overseas to the United States of America where he worked for the champion flat trainer Todd Pletcher and was closely involved with the Breeders Cup winners, Ashado and Speightstown.

Further accolades for Charlie came when spending time with Nicky at Seven Barrows where he had a hand in a multiple Grade 1 success at the Cheltenham Festival with Bacchanal, Marlborough and more recently Trabolgan and Fondmort.

'Few jump trainers starting from scratch make such a solid start in their first season as Charlie Longsdon' said the Telegraph in 2007. Charlie’s small but determined and ambitious team will now look forward to the new season as they attempt to build on their early promise.


Training History
In his fledgling training career Charlie has already chalked up a string of good wins, and will now hope to add more and more Graded races to that list.

• Holiday Lounge at Hinckley Beginners’ Chase, 26 Nov 09 Our Hero
• Shammah Nicholls Corporate Solicitors Handicap Hurdle, 05 Nov 09 Trafalgar Road
• Bet Totepool on 0800 221 221 Hunters’ Chase, 19 Apr 09 You Do The Math
• Freebets.co.uk Irish Grand National Free Bets Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle, 13 Apr 09 Mollys Garden
• Freebets.co.uk Online Gambling Handicap Chase, 08 Apr 09 Illogical Hope
• Bob Walkers The Bookies' Friends Novices' Handicap Hurdle, 02 Mar 09 Mollys Garden
• Marketrasenraces.co.uk Maiden Hurdle, 16 Feb 09 Our Hero
• Blue Square Champion Hurdle Trial (Grade 2), 17 Jan 09 Songe
• Jenrick Engineering Handicap Hurdle, 29 Jun 08 Honeybrook
• The H.E.R.O.S Mares Only Handicap Hurdle, 22 Jun 08 Honeybrook
• Thales Handicap Chase, 07 Mar 08 Mighty Matters
• Betfred Chatteris Fen Juvenile Hurdle, 07 Feb 08 Songe
• Turftv Handicap Hurdle, 24 Jan 08 Iwillrememberyou
• Cenkos Edinburgh Handicap Hurdle, 05 Dec 07 Iwillrememberyou
• Ladbrokespoker.com Handicap Chase, 06 Jan 07 Kerstino Two
• HBG Novices’ Handicap Chase, 18 Nov 06 Neysauteur
• Bet with iBetX.com Handicap Chase, 01 Nov 06 Kerstino Two

Stable Stars
Songe is the brightest of the bunch at Hull Farm. The 5-y-o gelding gave Charlie his 'proudest moment' yet as a trainer winning the Grade 2 Blue Square Champion Hurdle Trial at Haydock earlier in January 2009.

Songe not only secured Charlie’s biggest race victory to date but also beat the likes of Nicky Henderson’s Afsoun and Phillip Hobbs’ Snap Tie along the way, who have all gone on to be impressive hurdlers.

The following month, Songe went on to compete in another Grade 2 race at Wincanton in the Bathwick Tyres Kingwell Hurdle but on this occasion came up a little short after a mistake two out left him beaten.

As Songe didn’t make it to the Cheltenham Festival for a crack at the Champion Hurdle, the next race on his radar was at Aintree where he raced in the John Smith’s Aintree Hurdle (Grade 1) for the first time. Once again however, the 5-y-o was unable to re-produce the form that saw him successful in the Champion Hurdle Trial but was up against such a world class field.

After a somewhat disappointing end to last season after such promise, Songe has come back even stronger this time around with his recent performance at Hereford most notable after he finished a respectable second in testing conditions behind Paul Nicholls’ Recif De Thaix, and it would seem that there is more to come from him this year.


Dark Horses
Tequilla Bob has showed enough promise to give the yard plenty of reasons to look forward to his performances this term.

After only one start over the jumps earlier this month on December 3rd at Market Rasen, the 5-y-o gelding enjoyed the cut in the ground to finish one and three quarter lengths behind Trevor Hemmings’ King Fontaine.

Charlie’s novice hurdler had tracked the leaders throughout under a patient ride from Paddy Brennan and after narrowly leading towards the line he was headed with just 50 yards remaining.

Trafalgar Road is another that Charlie has his eye on after good form towards the back end of last term has since given the 5-y-o a licence to compete with the big boys at the Newbury Winter festival where he stayed on well for third in a competitive handicap, and more recently at Cheltenham.

Like Songe, Trafalgar Road is owned by Mr Alan Halsall and produced his best effort on his first outing this season at Haydock in the Shammah Nicholls Corporate Solicitors Handicap Hurdle where he was driven out by Tom Siddall to win by two and a quarter lengths.


Ones to watch in 2010
Supplied with the right horses, Charlie looks certain to have an enormous impact on the national hunt racing scene in years to come and while below is just a small selection from Charlie’s yard that look to have exciting futures, the trainers' own future looks to be most promising of them all:

• Songe
• Tara Taylor
• Tequilla Bob
• Our Hero
• Trafalgar Road

© Matthew Salter, 2009