The concept of a Cheltenham banker may throw up the image of a rural version of the gentlemen who got the rest of us into the current financial mess, but this one is designed to pay the bills rather than create them.
The fate of punters at this year’s Cheltenham Festival is likely to be decided in the opening five minutes of action. The debate over the third clash between Kauto Star and Denman in the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup may take the headlines but it is more a question of whether anything can make a race of it with Dunguib in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.
Beating Fionnegas by two-and-a-half lengths, in the Grade One Deloitte Novices’ Hurdle at Leopardstown yesterday, may not appear that mesmerising but the manner of victory said more than the bare result. Some of his jumping was deliberate but Dunguib gave every indication that he was performing at barely above half speed for most of the race. He eased his way into the lead in the last furlong to make it four straight wins over hurdles.
Those looking for reasons to oppose Dunguib may latch on to a few points and it seems that his trainer, Philip Fenton, is taking the sensible option of sticking to the novice division rather than going for broke by running in the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle. “He had me worried for a spell as well. But then he got the job done, which is grand,” Fenton said. "He’s a huge cruising speed – he travelled well and he looked that he had plenty on the tank when he finished. The Supreme Novice, that’s the one.”
Clearly the Festival will be the supreme test for Dunguib - who has yet to be posed a real problem in his runs over hurdles - and his young jockey, Brian O’Connell. Dunguib’s racing style, which is often to be held up in rear for a late run, does bring its own risks in a 20-runner field at Cheltenham and O’Connell is still only just out of the novice stage himself. However, they handled a similar situation in last year’s Bumper and one suspects that the end-to-end gallop of the Supreme may be just what Dunguib needs to show the full range of his talents.
Whether Binocular has the talent to win the Champion Hurdle remains to be seen but the reaction of his jockey, Tony McCoy, to winning the toteplacepot Contenders Hurdle at Sandown on Saturday suggested that he did not share the optimism of the horse’s trainer, Nicky Henderson.
“I don’t know but, for whatever reason, he’s just not anywhere near the level of form he was showing last year,” McCoy said. “He just hasn’t given me the same feel in a race. It feels like you’re having to keep an eye on the leaders whereas last year it didn’t matter where they were. But he’s won and you could say he might be progressing. And he might progress again and, if it is better ground at Cheltenham, he might perform better.
“I’m probably a little bit more gloomy because of the expectations I had for the horse. I was very confident he’d win the Champion Hurdle last year and he didn’t. But his trainer is a master of getting horses ready for Cheltenham – he's probably peaking him for there not today.”
The rest of the card was a mixed bag for Henderson. Punchestowns confirmed that he will be a major force in the RSA Chase, when he won the Grade One totepool Challengers Novices' Chase, but the was the distinct sound of a bubble bursting after According trailed in 68 lengths behind Diktalina in the toteswinger Juvenile Novices’ Hurdle. The winner was largely dismissed after the race but she won under a penalty but, on a line through Prince Pippin, this form bears comparison with the likes of Advisor, who is prominent in the markets for the JCB Triumph Hurdle.
The run by According was just too bad to be true and Henderson said: “All I can tell you is where all this hype came from goodness only knows. He ran far too free and just got all lit up. That’s the first four-year-old I’ve run – there are some more.”
But probably not any as good as Dunguib.
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