Timeform jumps editor Dan Barber on Sir Gino and Lossiemouth and why the latter should go for gold in the Unibet Champion Hurdle.
It feels like an undersell to view such an outstanding meeting as Saturday’s Cheltenham card through the prism of ‘Trials’ for the Festival in March – a day of gripping finishes and old favourites giving their all in defeat counterbalanced by a rider at the other end of their racing story putting himself alongside some of the sport’s biggest names in the saddle with a first Grade One success whilst still in his teens.
But it was the jolt provided by a couple of youthful hurdlers that really set the post-event pulse racing, starting right away courtesy of Sir Gino.
Granted, big rival Burdett Road did a fine impression of a juvenile whose main target is the Festival, tying up late as though the run will bring him to the boil again, but, as stated on Racing TV’s coverage, Sir Gino’s acceleration to leave him for dead was a sight that got better with each viewing.
It will take something special – be that a big turnaround from Burdett Road or otherwise – for Sir Gino to have his colours lowered in the Triumph, not least when considering he clocked a faster overall time and final furlong to boot than International Hurdle winner Lossiemouth, who was blistering herself in treating some second-flight British hurdlers with pure contempt about three hours later.
Lossiemouth still hasn’t shown her all (has a Timeform ‘p’) and would have the advantage of the 7 lb sex allowance utilised by the likes of the same connections’ Annie Power and Honeysuckle in recent years if rolling the Champion Hurdle dice against the seemingly imperious but seldom-seen Constitution Hill, which made it all the more deflating therefore that the Mares’ Hurdle was immediately cited as her likely Festival target.
Competition should be king in sport; just not when that competition relates to which one will start the longest odds-on favourite at the sport’s biggest fixture.
After all, Paisley Park, Champ and Dashel Drasher can’t take each other on for ever.
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