D’AIRS Hendo: I was ready for a bloody nose, but Buv’s a champ
David Yates
BUVEUR D’AIR swatted away Irish star Samcro with disdain to land back-to-back victories in Newcastle’s Fighting Fifth Hurdle – and take a giant leap towards a third Champion Hurdle crown.
Trainer Nicky Henderson feared his seven- year- old, winner of the Cheltenham two-miler for the past two seasons, was taking on “as big a test as he’s faced” when locking horns with Gordon Elliott’s Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle victor, with Supreme Novices’ Hurdle hero Summerville Boy also in the five-runner field.
But Henderson’s concerns proved groundless as Buveur D’air, made to fight when securing his second Champion Hurdle back in the spring, loomed alongside toiling leader Samcro running to the final flight of the Grade 1 test, his rider Barry Geraghty sitting motionless.
Despite an out-of-character mistake at the last obstacle, Buveur D’air, who has undergone breathing surgery since his latest start, sprinted away for an eight-length supremacy, with Vision Des Fl o s b e a t i ng Summerville Boy for third.
“I was ready for another bloody nose, to be honest with you, but I think he showed himself a champion today,” said a re- lieved Henderson, whose Might ight Bite had returned a well-beaten last of five when favourite for Haydock Park’s Betfair Chase seven days earlier. “I was saying – and I really meant it – if he was ever going to get beaten, it was going to be today. He’s gone ab above all expectations. “T “There are other fish in the pond, but now he is the horse they have to beat.” The bookmakers