Ruby Walsh set to partner Zarkandar in the Betfair Hurdle – Horse Racing Update

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Ruby Walsh set to partner Zarkandar in the Betfair Hurdle
 
Veteran jockey, Ruby Walsh, is all set to ride, Zarkandar, in the Betfair Hurdle at Newbury in England on Saturday, February 11, 2012.
This news was broken by Paul Nicholls, trainer of Zarkandar, who was hopeful that this combination will prove to be a lethal one at Newbury. He further went onto welcome jockey, Daryl Jacob in his team as well.
After strengthening his team, a very confident Nicholls tweeted, “After discussing with owners Ruby now switches to Zarkandar.” He added, “First and foremost he's not been trained just for Saturday - it's the Champion Hurdle that I want him at his
very best. He could run a blinder but he will improve.”
Zarkandar is the favourite to win the Betfair Hurdle, as he has been given a starting price of 10 to 3 for the event. However, things will not be easy for him, as the event has attracted 24 entries.
Despite that, the five-year-old horse’s trainer is pretty much confident of stealing the show at Newbury. He is expecting some fight from the rest of the pack, but believes his runner will emerge victorious.
Zarkandar has got a very good record in hurdles, as he has won all three he entered in his career up till now. He will be aiming to make that record even better in the Betfair race and Champion Hurdle.
However, the most important thing at the moment is that the weather remains good throughout the week. Cold temperatures have disrupted quite a lot of events in England and Ireland recently, but the organisers are trying their level best to keep things
under control.
Clerk of the course at Newbury, Richard Osgood was hopeful that the track will be good for racing on Saturday. He said that the temperature is expected to remain below freezing point for a couple of days, but things might get better until race day.
According to Osgood, “There are going to be some frosts at night time. We are going to have to play it day to day. I would have thought we would probably be all right to race today mainly because the overnight temperatures were above zero.”