Ready to prove his Yanworth at Cheltenham
YANWORTH can provide Alan King with a second win in the Stan James Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham.
He has followed a tried and tested route to the big race, having run in the Neptune as a novice last season, when beaten only by Yorkhill.
That was at a time when King’s horses were running poorly and Yanworth was the only one to perform with any real credit all week. Also, if Barry Geraghty could ride the race again it is debatable whether he would choose to chart such a wide path throughout, whereas Ruby Walsh scraped the paint against the rails on the eventual winner.
That remains Yanworth’s only defeat over timber and it is slightly disconcerting that of his three career defeats, two have been at the Festival.
If JP McManus did not also own Unowhatimeanharry there seems little doubt Yanworth would be running over three miles on Thursday, but he has shown enough pace to win over two miles at Wincanton and Kempton this season, two of the tighter tracks.
In recent seasons the Neptune has a better record than the Supreme of producing Champion Hurdle types, with Faugheen, Peddlers Cross, The New One, Hardy Eustace and, of course, Istabraq either winning or going very close. King broke the long hoodoo of five-year-olds in the Champion Hurdle when Katchit surprised many and had trends followers shaking their heads in disbelief, and while this would not be as big a shock, there are plenty who feel he has yet to set the world alight this season.
But with the capable Mark Walsh in the saddle, he can finally show just what he is made of.
Altior should already have won the Racing Post Arkle Challenge Trophy by then.
Winner of the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle 12 months ago, he arrives unbeaten over fences with many already crying out for him to take on Douvan in the Queen Mother Champion Chase.
That can wait for another day, and barring a fall it is impossible to see him being beaten given what he did to Fox Norton in the Game Spirit at Newbury.