Sam and blast
O’LEARY ADMITS CHAMPION HOPES ARE IN TATTERS
SAMCRO is “very, very doubtful” for the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham in March after his latest blowout at Leopardstown yesterday.
Gordon Elliott’s six-year-old began the winter as the 5-2 favourite for the two- mile crown after a brilliant novice campaign that saw him victorious at the Cheltenham Festival last spring.
But Samcro can now be backed at 20-1 after slumping to his third defeat of the season with a flat fifth of six behind Sharjah in the Ryanair Hurdle, sponsored by his owner Michael O’Leary. “I’d say he’s very, very doubtful for the Champion Hurdle,” said a downcast Eddie O’Leary, racing manager to his brother’s Gigginstown House Stud.
“It clearly wasn’t Samcro’s running – the Samcro of today and the last day [when beaten by Buveur D’Air in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle] is nothing near the Samcro we had last year.
The O’Leary team will now await news from their veterinary team before making plans for the future.
“We’ll try to get him back right first,” added Eddie O’Leary. “The rest of the year doesn’t bother us – we’ll try to find out what’s amiss. He’ll go to the vets for a MOT. If we don’t find something wrong we’re all in trouble.”
Sharjah’s Champion odds range from 5-1 to 14-1 on the back of his three-and-threequarter- length supremacy over last February’s Irish Champion Hurdle victor Supasundae.
Trainer Willie Mullins, who reported the Closutton stable’s 2015 Champion Hurdler Faugheen “sore but fine” after his fall in Friday’s Christmas Hurdle, said: “He looks to be an improving horse.
“He’ll be entered for the Champion Hurdle and he might just go straight there.”
At Newbury, Champ – the horse named after 20-time champion jockey Sir AP McCoy – proved his worth at the highest level with a taking triumph in the Betway Challow Novices’ Hurdle.
Running in the colours of McCoy’s boss JP McManus, Champ, a nephew of threetime Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Best Mate, accounted for Getaway Trump to earn a 4-1 quote for Cheltenham’s Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle.
“He has got a wonderful pedigree and is a lovely horse,” said Champ’s handler Nicky Henderson.
“He has got a name he has got to live up to – I’d say ‘ JP’ has been sitting on this name for a few years – but we took a big step towards it today.”