Grandouet eying a hat-trick in Stanjames.com International Hurdle Grade 2
Grandouet will be looking to record a hat-trick of victories by claiming the Stanjames.com International Hurdle Grade 2 at Cheltenham in England on Saturday, December 15, 2012. He will have to overcome the challenge from six other decent runners, who will
be looking to earn a name for themselves in the class-1 encounter.
Things will not be easy for anyone, as the weather has not been good for racing in the United Kingdom over the past couple of weeks.
Same is the situation with this racecourse, which has been badly affected by rainfall. The going has become heavy and it will cause a lot of problems for the organisers and the contestants.
Everyone will be hoping that the situation improves before the start of action at 15:05 GMT. The overall distance to cover for the runners will be 2 miles and 1 furlong. The triumphant stallions will be awarded a cash prize of £74,035 in the end.
According to the bookies, the real competition will be amongst Grandouet, Rock On Ruby and Zarkandar, as all three of them have the ability to deliver a top quality result at this level.
The latter of the above mentioned contestants has been given the best odds for victory, as he has got a fantastic record in races over hurdles.
However, he might not enjoy the track conditions at Cheltenham, which will give an opportunity to his opponents to cause an upset in the end.
Zarkandar has participated in seven hurdles until now, winning five of them, which shows what he is capable of achieving in this format. He has appeared in rain affected competitions, but none have been worse like today.
Therefore, his trainer Paul Nicholls will be concerned about the entire situation and he might even end up pulling out of the race.
On the other hand, Grandouet could prove to be the toughest at Cheltenham because he enjoys such conditions. He started off his career with several rain affected events and managed to perform really well in them.
In fact, the Nicky Henderson’s trainee brought up his maiden victory, when the ground was soft, so he will definitely fancy his chances under jockey, Barry Geraghty.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely of the writer’s and do not reflect bettor.com’s official editorial policy.
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