If you saw my outstanding bets Rease you would then know just how wrong you are.
I've also doubled up with Cue Card in the Supreme and Neptune and Zaidpour in the same races yesterday with JokeOral at 10s and 20s to win a nice bit.
Singles on here at 24's and 23's.
There is still time Rease, you have been told the form, the preparation and the prices what more do you want?

^ after first day, I should say.

Istabraq is the best 2 miler I have ever watched. I can't honestly believe people are knocking him. Knocking form is very easy to do. I mean I could go through Sea The Stars' form to make him sound ordinary but in reality he was a horse of a lifetime as was Istabraq IMO.

Sorry to rain on your parade Sanders but Menora doesn't beat Dunguib. In fact it is only the Menora form that worries me. He was given a blinding ride by Johnson to win the Supreme and his other form is highly questionable. Apart from that obvious error the rest of your write up I agree with.
Only 10 weeks to go and the CH winner hasn't even run yet. I know I may be becoming a bit tedious but for the very reasons you listed above I reached my conclusions. Good luck to you. Roll on March 15th.

Cyclops ffs stop living up to your namesake.
I'm not an Istabraq fan, Persian War was my hero but you are being blind.
Istabraq was only beaten 3 times in 28 hurdle races over 4 years.
And those 3 times were 1st time out, by Pridwell after he had won the CH by 12 lengths and AP still rates this his best ever ride, and by Limestone Lad when he was given, at best, an injudicious ride.
No-one knows how good he really was because he often won as he liked even in Gr1's.
So please give it a f u c k i n g rest because you are talking complete and utter b o l l ox.

He beat everything they threw at him, I don't think any of your hero's, or mine for that matter, can claim that.

He beat Hors la loi, Dato Star, Moscow Flyer, Pridwell, Relkeel, Limestone Lad and numerous others. May not have come up against any Sea Pigeons or Night Nursess but you cannot deny the above list of horses were all well above average and won a lot of good races over the years.
Istabraq WAS a true champion imo!

Back to this years race I still think Binocular is the horse to beat. Hurricane Fly appears to be the main danger but running at cheltenham in a big field on better ground is a different proposition to Ireland in the mud! If Dunguib has been intensively schooled I would rate him as a live outsider at a good price.

Actually Sea Pigeon won twice.

If I were placing these in order in a CH between these all at their best it would be as follows:

Sea Pigeon
Istabraq
Monksfield
Persian War
Bula
Night Nurse

Sure to upset somebody but that is only my opnion.

brigust, again you take refuge in the spurious. "Favourite" does not equate to "best". And a  poll of favourite horses is bound to be skewed towards the more recent, as many voters would not be old enough to have witnessed horses of a previous era. Of course, you are entitled to your opinion, as I am to mine, but you seem unable to answer my point that Istabraq ran in the poorest hurdling era by far and had so little to beat that hyperbolic assessments of his ability do not stand the test of the form book.

big question is - would Istabraq have had the beating of Dunguib?

brigust, if you feel the quality of opposition is irrelevant, you presumably feted Detroit City when he won 8 in a row, and maybe our friend Dunguib when he did the same. 
Woodworm, you put up a top class opponent at last in Moscow Flyer. Your memory may be better than mine concerning his Champion hurdle aspirations but the fact remains that he was beating Istabraq when the latter fell the second time they met, and may well have done so when he himself fell the only other time.

But isn't that the fun of it, bud?
I argue my case, you argue yours and we either get persuaded or agree to differ.
If its pointless to compare horses from different eras, as people do about all sports,
the forum would certainly be the poorer.

What a f**king joke this forum is.

I shall remember to stick to the topic in future. Apologies to those I have annoyed with my diversion.

Many a wandering path leads who knows where....

Istabraq broke the course record time and achieved a TS of 171. Binocular posted a pretty fast time in the latest renewal and achieved a TS of 163.

Brings us around to one of the key issues I think we really need to get sorted for the race next March: How good was Binocular's win in the race last time?

On the clock, pretty good, but not quite outstanding enough perhaps to think he could be in a class of his own within the division. Likely we are not talking about a horse that will be as dominant in the CH as Istabraq was in his time, or are we?

Binocular won easily last March, so could he have pulled out more if needed? Possibly, though we only have limited evidence to judge how much Binocular might be able to find had, for example, KK got close enough to lay down a really serious challenge going over the last hurdle. Not entirely clear yet what Binocular might, or might not, be capable of achieving if locked into a long, driving finish with other horses that have the class and will to battle hard up the hill.

Kicking for home off a fast pace at Cheltenham, Binocular looked formidable. Did the calibre of the opposition flatter him on that occasion, or are we looking at a horse that is capable of travelling and hurdling so well on decent ground that the race just can't take enough out of him to draw the sting from his impressive finishing speed?

Binocular, imo, both outran them and out speeded them last time. That is a potent mix. KK is a pretty good horse on what he showed last season. Yet his limitations, arguably, were fairly exposed by Binocular in the CH. What now needs to be weighed up is whether the likes of Menorah, HF and PC are significantly better horses than KK. Or, if they are not significantly better than KK, whether perhaps their racing styles or tactical approach might give them a better chance against an in-form Binocular than was the case with KK in the 2009 renewal.

HF could be every bit as brilliant as Binocular, and maybe even better. He has captured the imagination as potentially a very classy horse. But who knows how well he will travel off such a strong pace on a track stiffer than those he has faced so far.

PC looks a resolute galloper. He is unlikely to be outrun as such; out speeded, over the hurdles and at key tactical points in the race, possibly that might prove his Achilles heel. Menorah may get there as economically as any of them, but would he have the finishing speed to cope with the way Binocular skipped away up the hill last March? 

Binocular looked in such fantastic form in the 2010 renewal, you could almost speculate it would not have troubled him had the race been run 2 or 3 seconds faster. Had that been the case, then on the clock it would have put his performance right up there with the very best CH winners in recent times, including Istabraq with his best CH TS rating of 171 and the TS rating of 172 that Brave Inca (somewhat surprisingly) posted in the 2006 renewal.

On that basis, I keep coming back to the conclusion that I would be loathe to oppose Binocular, though I may want to dutch him with one other horse given the quality of the likely opposition and the possibility Binocular really does need the ground as dry as it was last time to produce that kind of superior form.

Oscar Whisky franks Dunguib form, go, go, go.

Got some shrapnel on Oscar at 95s so happy enough

Beat some useful race fit yardsticks but a fair bit to prove yet if he's to come close in the CH

CV,bet you glad you gave Ow a couple of lines,would have been funny if your excellent thread had not mentioned the winner!!

yeh it was,another intriguing addition to a real fascinating race this year.

AKA - What now needs to be weighed up is whether the likes of Menorah, HF and PC are significantly better horses than KK. Or, if they are not significantly better than KK, whether perhaps their racing styles or tactical approach might give them a better chance against an in-form Binocular than was the case with KK in the 2009 renewal.

I agree entirely that this is the question - KK represents a good yardstick. He'd have been a really excellent winner of the CH  but Binocular (IMO) outclassed him. Will the new comers prove capable of rising above KK's level, given their different tactical styls, or might the ground blunt Binocular? I think the latter could certainly happen (though Binocular wont mind a bit of cut, and deeper ground rarely arrives now) but at this stage I am not sure about the former.