Champion Hurdle Update

Last year's winner Binocular heads a field of 13 left in the Stan James Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham on Tuesday.

The JP McManus-owned seven-year-old is one of two probables from the Nicky Henderson team. The other is Welsh Champion Hurdle winner Oscar Whisky, while Khyber Kim, who was runner-up 12 months ago, could try to go one better for Nigel Twiston-Davies.


Menorah, who took the Supreme Novices' Hurdle on this card last year, is a strong candidate from the Philip Hobbs stable, having won both of his starts at Cheltenham this term. Peddlers Cross, who also won at the 2010 Festival, represents trainer Donald McCain, along with Overturn, and has a 100% record to defend.


Alan King is double-handed with the progressive Mille Chief and Salden Licht, while there are three Irish challengers in the Willie Mullins-trained pair of Hurricane Fly and Thousand Stars - plus Philip Fenton's Dunguib. Clerk's Choice and Bygones Of Brid make up the baker's dozen.

Get Me Out Of Here, also owned by McManus, has been withdrawn, along with Cue Card, who instead goes for the Supreme Novices' Hurdle.


The going at Cheltenham is described as good to soft, good in places Simon Claisse, the clerk of the course and director of racing, said: "We have seen some light rain and the forecast is for further light rain and showers up to Monday.

"The acceptors for Centenary Day look fantastic and we have an extremely high-class renewal of the Stan James Champion Hurdle in prospect."

Get On This One, On The Double, For The Double TODAY!

Nicky Henderson's exciting young hurdler Aegean Dawn is among 40 entries for the Paddy Power Imperial Cup at Sandown on Saturday.

The six-year-old is set to warm up for a possible attempt at a £75,000 bonus given by the sponsors on his first outing since defeating Champion Hurdle fancy Mille Chief at Ascot in November.

Henderson, who took this race with Dave's Dream in 2009, has three other Imperial entries in Eradicate, Giorgio Quercus and Owen Glendower. The Seven Barrows trainer will have one eye on the pay-out offered for any horse that can win that and follow up in a race at the Festival a few days later.

Aegean Dawn has two options at Cheltenham - the Coral Cup and the Vincent O'Brien County Handicap Hurdle.

Silver In!

Silver By Nature has been given the go-ahead to run in the John Smith's Grand National following discussions between owners Geoff and Joyce Brown, trainer Lucinda Russell and her partner, former champion jump jockey Peter Scudamore.

Russell has always been keen on the grey taking his chance in the world's greatest steeplechase, as long as the ground is safe, and he put himself in line for a trip to Liverpool on April 9 by defying top weight in the Grand National Trial at Haydock.

"As long as the ground is OK he will be running in the National. Ideally we want soft ground. I trust Aintree that they will produce good, safe ground and that is the most important thing to us," said the Kinross handler.

"The National itself has changed so much in the past five to 10 years. It's a staying chase for which they produce safer ground and the fences are a hell of a lot safer.

"He's been running away up the gallops which is a mild concern. He's not usually like that, but he's been a lot fresher since Haydock. I think it's nice for the horse that he's got his confidence back. He'd had a few hard races and he finds that Haydock track easy and he just enjoys himself.

"He'll train away for the next three weeks and have an easy week before the race and we'll just get him fresh for Aintree. He won't have a racecourse gallop. He can have a variation here as we've got two yards so we'll take him across to the other one and work him on the grass.

"We'll make an Aintree-type fence, but I'm quite happy with his jumping. I thought he jumped quite well round Haydock. He's an experienced horse now and Peter Buchanan (jockey) said his run at Newbury (in the Hennessy) just crowned him and made a man of him. Ever since then his jumping's been good."

No grey has won the world's greatest steeplechase since Nicolaus Silver in 1961 while there has only been one Scottish-based winner, Rubstic in 1979.

Silver By Nature, who is set to carry 10st 12lb, can be backed at 16-1 for National glory.

Solwhit Out!

Solwhit has been ruled out of the Ladbrokes World Hurdle on Thursday week.

Charles Byrnes' six-times Grade One winner will not compete at this year's Cheltenham Festival after failing to impress connections in a Monday morning workout. He had been set to step up to three miles for the first time, but is likely to be roughed off for the season with a chasing career in mind next term.

Byrnes said: "He just wasn't firing on all cylinders so there is no point in going. It's disappointing, but it was something of an afterthought anyway. We gave him two pieces of work and they weren't satisfactory. It would have been interesting to see how he got on over the trip."

The handler continued: "It's doubtful he'll run again this season and I think we'll go chasing with him next season."

Solwhit, sixth in last year's Champion Hurdle, had finished second behind Hurricane Fly on his last three outings.

More From Evan Williams Yard

Evan Williams will have no hesitation in pitching West With The Wind and William's Wishes into top company this weekend - but the weather could still spoil his plans.

The pair are entered in the Kingmaker Novices' Chase at Warwick and, more ambitiously, the totepool Game Spirit Chase at Newbury after putting together good sequences.

"I'm very keen to run them but it all depends on the ground and I might not run either if it's too soft," said the trainer.

William's Wishes is unbeaten in three starts over fences but must now move beyond minor novice events at Leicester, Ludlow and Hereford, while West With The Wind has not been seen since completing a Ffos Las hat-trick in the summer.

The trainer went on: "I really want to run William's Wishes against some serious opposition so I can help evaluate where he stands. If he didn't run this weekend I would probably take him to the Grand Annual at Cheltenham.

"The key to West With The Wind is the ground. He needs it to be good, and I wouldn't want to run him on anything worse than good to soft. So we'll have to see how the week develops."

The pair are both entered in the Arkle and the Jewson at the Cheltenham Festival.

Brian Doing The Rain Dance!

Brian Ellison would like to see plenty of rain for Bothy at Newbury in time for the totesport Trophy on Saturday.

The five-year-old ran a fine race on his only start over timber this winter when second to Menorah in the Greatwood Hurdle at Cheltenham in November. He did not fare too well on the all-weather at Southwell since, but Ellison has drawn a line through that effort.

"The more rain the better for him. He loves soft ground, he's in great form and I'm very hopeful," the North Yorkshire handler told At The Races.

"His second to Menorah in the Greatwood must be the best handicap form around. Menorah's a very good horse and we're looking forward to Saturday if we get the rain.

"We ran him in a bumper race at Southwell but he didn't like the sand in his face, but we had to run him as he was so well. We didn't want to wait until February to get the freshness out of him. He loves jumping."


Ellison also plans to saddle Palomar for Newbury's valuable prize after he finished third in the Lanzarote Hurdle.

"I run Palomar as well. He did a fantastic bit of work on Saturday. He's never let me down since we bought him. He'll go on any ground," he added.

Ayr Off!

This afternoon's meeting at Ayr has been abandoned due to waterlogging following 23 millimetres of rain overnight.

The unexpected rainfall on already saturated ground led to conditions being unraceable.

Clerk of the course Emma Marley said: "A heavy band of rain meant we were unlucky and caught nearly an inch of rain - yet Prestwick down the road only got 10 millimetres. It has left the ground unraceable and it is still raining now."