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By Dylan Jenear ValueChecker

Binocular Favourite for Christmas Hurdle at Kempton
13/01/11

The day being billed as ‘Super Saturday’ at Kempton not only features the rescheduled King George VI Chase, but also the williamhill.com Christmas Hurdle, for which the Nicky Henderson-trained Binocular heads the market, generally at around the 2-1 mark.

Binocular
© racing-images.co.uk

Binocular

Binocular has at least 4lb in hand of his rivals on official ratings, but I doubt that we will see the seven-year-old at his best on Saturday. Indeed, if last season is anything to go by it’s in the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in March when we should expect to him at his brilliant best.

During the 2009/10 campaign Binocular was disappointing on his reappearance in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle before finishing third to Go Native in this Grade 1 contest. We then saw a completely different horse in the spring when he landed the Champion Hurdle in great style.

Some horses simply need to be brought to the boil more steadily than others, whereas others can perform as well in November as they can in March. The evidence available suggests that Binocular falls into the former category, as he again misfired on his return to action in this season’s Fighting Fifth at Newbury, coming home in third behind Peddlers Cross, beaten over seven lengths.

It could be that last season was an exception rather than the rule, in which case 2-1 would represent outstanding value. Conversely, his campaign is highly likely to be fine-tuned so that he arrives at Cheltenham in March at the peak of his powers, and his effort at Newbury certainly suggests as much.

Starluck
© Grossick Racing Photography

Starluck
With this in mind, I strongly believe that punters should take him on, and the one to side with is Starluck. The six-year-old was a place ahead of Binocular when just failing to repel Go Native in this race last term, and was six lengths in front of the Champion Hurdler in the Fighting Fifth 49 days ago.

Moreover, Kempton is perfect for the strong-travelling gelding, who has won three of his four previous starts here (two over hurdles, one on the Flat). Don’t get me wrong, Binocular is hardly short of speed, but Alan Fleming’s charge possess a potent turn of foot, and I don’t believe that there is a hurdler in the UK that can match him on a sharp, flat track.

Starluck was 12 lengths adrift of Binocular when fifth in the Champion Hurdle, but he simply doesn’t get home around Prestbury Park in a strongly-run race. It was a similar story in the Triumph Hurdle during his novice campaign: he loomed large at the second-last, only for his stamina to ebb away in the closing stages. At Kempton he’s a different proposition, though.

Whereas a test of speed is just what Starluck needs, Khyber Kim will probably find things happening too quickly on Saturday. Nigel Twiston-Davies’ hurdler is a class act, as he proved last term when finishing runner-up in the Champion Hurdle before signing off with a decisive victory at Aintree’s Grand National meeting last term. However, 2m round here will prove far too sharp for the Mujahid gelding.

Of the other trio set to go to post, Bocamix looks out of his depth, but both Escort’men and Overturn are respected. The former, so impressive in a Grade 2 novices’ hurdle over C&D last season, did extremely well to land a competitive handicap under top-weight on his return in October, while Overturn was highly progressive in this sphere during 2009/10 and will not be easy to peg back if, as is likely with no other confirmed front-runner in the line-up, he is allowed an easy lead.

Recommendation: Starluck

 

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