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StanJames.com International Hurdle 

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Stellar Cast for International Hurdle
07/12/11

This year’s £130,000 StanJames.com International (3.05pm) looks set to be a fascinating contest after a top-quality entry of 10 was received for one of the feature races of day two of The International at Cheltenham, Saturday, December 10.

Grandouet
© Racehorse Photos

Grandouet

The second contest in “The Road To Cheltenham” will certainly have a major impact on the ante-post market for the Stan James Champion Hurdle at The Festival in March with two of the young pretenders to the hurdling crown, Grandouet (11/4 favourite with Stan James ) and Brampour (4/1), set to clash in the two mile, one furlong hurdle.

Last season’s JCB Triumph Hurdle third Grandouet posted a commanding victory in the Grade One Punchestown Champion 4YO Hurdle in May and was an equally impressive winner of a conditions hurdle at Haydock on November 19, when he beat the Brian Ellison-trained Marsh Warbler (40/1) by eight lengths.

His trainer Nicky Henderson sent out subsequent Champion Hurdle winner Binocular to win the StanJames.com International in 2008, when the race was run at Ascot due to waterlogging at Cheltenham, to add to the victory of Geos in 2000.

Brampour
© racing-images.co.uk

Brampour
Brampour could only finish ninth behind Grandouet at The Festival in March but Paul Nicholls’ charge is set to return to Graded company following a pair of exciting handicap wins that included a comfortable victory in the £100,000 Greatwood Handicap Hurdle at Cheltenham on November 13. The champion trainer has also entered Grade Two Scottish Champion Hurdle victor Sanctuaire (25/1).

Irish trainers have struck twice in the last seven renewals of the StanJames.com International with Back In Front (2004) and Harchibald (2005). County Limerick handler Charles Byrnes will be bidding to enhance that record with Grade One winner Pittoni (11/1). The five-year-old easily landed a Naas hurdle on October 16 before coming home third to Thousand Stars in the Grade One Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown on November 20.

Byrnes revealed today: “The plan is for Pittoni to travel over for the StanJames.com International.

“I thought that he ran up to his handicap mark in the Morgiana Hurdle. He won a Grade One as a juvenile but it wasn’t the greatest race in the world and he’s probably up to being a Grade Two hurdler at the moment. He’s a bit behind the likes of Thousand Stars.

“His form has mainly been on heavy or soft ground but I am sure that he will have no problem with good going and he heads to Cheltenham in good order.”

Menorah (4/1), who unseated Richard Johnson on his chasing debut at Exeter on November 1, may bid to become only the fifth horse to win back-to-back renewals of the StanJames.com International.

The six-year-old, whose trainer Philip Hobbs also sent out Rooster Booster (2002) and Detroit City (2006) to victory in the race, triumphed in the Grade One Stan James Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at the 2010 Cheltenham Festival and returned 12 months later to come home fifth behind Hurricane Fly in the Stan James Champion Hurdle.

The Donald McCain-trained Overturn (4/1) has been in superb form this season and gained a deserved first Grade One victory with a convincing four and a half-length verdict over Binocular in the first leg of “The Road To Cheltenham”, the StanJames.com Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle on November 26.

Clerk’s Choice (16/1), fourth in last year’s StanJames.com International, is on course to make his debut for his new trainer Oliver Sherwood, while the entry is completed by the Greatwood Handicap Hurdle third Abergavenny (40/1) and Stormy Weather (250/1), who are both stable companions of Marsh Warbler.

 

 

Apart from Pittoni, Byrnes is also set to be represented at The International by recent Wetherby beginners’ chase victor Fists Of Fury, who could take on Mossley, Join Together and Champion Court in the £20,000 Ryman The Stationer Novices’ Chase (12.45pm, Saturday) over an extended three miles and a furlong.

Stable companion Sea Of Thunder, who finished second in an extended two-mile novices’ hurdle on the same Wetherby card on November 23, may also line up at Cheltenham on Saturday in the three-mile £21,500 Grade Two Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle (1.55pm), when his potential opposition includes Halley, a Grade One winner over fences in France on his latest start, and 2009 Grand National hero Mon Mome.

Byrnes continued: “Fists Of Fury and Sea Of Thunder are also likely to head to Cheltenham. Fist Of Fury won well at Wetherby although I am not sure what sort of race it was in terms of the opposition. He will appreciate the better ground and will get the trip well.

“It looks like a very hot novice chase and he probably has a small bit to find on one or two of the others but I think that he will run a decent enough race.

“Sea Of Thunder probably has a good bit to find but I think that he should stay the three miles. We have also entered him in at Hereford the following day and we might keep him for that if the Cheltenham race looks too strong for him.”

Day two of The International also features the £100,000 Grade Three Spinal Research The Atlantic 4 Gold Cup (2.30pm), which is set to be contested by the first three home in the BetVictor Gold Cup - Great Endeavour, Quantitativeeasing and Divers.

Action gets underway at 12.10pm with the £16,000 JCB Triumph Hurdle Trial and also features the £25,000 Jenny Mould Memorial Handicap Chase (1.20pm) and the concluding Grade Two £30,000 Unicoin Homes Relkeel Hurdle (3.35pm).

 

GROUND

The going on the New Course (Chase and Hurdle) at Cheltenham is currently:

GOOD, GOOD TO FIRM IN PLACES (WATERING)

Simon Claisse, Clerk of the Course and Director of Racing at Cheltenham, commented: “Conditions in the build-up to The International have been extremely dry, with less than 10 millimetres of rain in the last three and a half weeks.

“We have taken the decision to water, with six to seven millimetres of irrigation currently being applied to the Chase and Hurdle courses.

“We are forecast to receive three millimetres of rain on Thursday, but bar the odd shower, that is all the rain that is predicted.”

80 millimetres of water has been applied to round course over the last three and a half weeks, with 20 millimetres applied to the chute.

The going on the Cross Country Course remains:

FIRM, GOOD TO FIRM IN PLACES

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