World Hurdle

Dual winner Big Buck's features among an entry of 46 for this year's £260,000 Grade One Ladbrokes World Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival on Thursday, March 17.


The Stewart family's eight-year-old will bid to emulate the other outstanding staying hurdler of recent times Inglis Drever by taking the three-mile championship race for a third time.

Race sponsor Ladbrokes makes Paul Nicholls' charge its 4/7 favourite as he bids to follow up the successes of 2009 and 2010.

If successful in 2011, Big Buck's would become the first horse to win the championship contest for three consecutive years.


Since being switched to the smaller obstacles by trainer Paul Nicholls after unseating his rider in the 2008 Hennessy Gold Cup, Big Buck's has yet to taste defeat in 10 outings and he recorded a fifth Grade One success when producing yet another authoritative display in the rearranged Long Walk Hurdle at Newbury at the end of December.


Some of his chief dangers may come from the stable of Nicky Henderson as the Seven Barrows handler has entered Punchestowns (8/1 second favourite with Ladbrokes), runner-up in 2009, as well as impressive recent Cheltenham winner Oscar Whisky (10/1) and Zaynar (12/1), who triumphed in the Grade One JCB Triumph Hurdle at The Festival in 2009.


An Irish-trained winner would raise the roof on St Patrick's Day and a record 15 Irish entries are headed by a formidable quintet from Willie Mullins that includes two previous winners of the Grade One Neptune Investment Management Novices' Hurdle - Fiveforthree (20/1) and Mikael D'Haguenet (16/1), dual Grade Two David Nicholson Mares' Hurdle heroine Quevega (10/1) and recent Grade Two scorer Mourad (12/1). Six-time Grade One victor Solwhit (12/1) could also make the journey across the Irish Sea for trainer Charles Byrnes.


Other notable contenders include the David Pipe-trained Grand Crus (10/1), who sauntered to victory in a valuable fixed brush handicap at Haydock in November, and the Alan King-trained pair of Karabak (14/1), successful in the Grade Two Unicoin Homes Relkeel Hurdle at Cheltenham in December, and Grade One Ladbrokes.com World Series Hurdle runner-up Bensalem (16/1).


Trainer Robin Dickin is hopeful that Restless Harry (33/1) can book his place for The Festival with a bold show in the Grade Two Cleeve Hurdle, run over the same course and distance as the Ladbrokes World Hurdle, on Festival Trials Day, Saturday, January 29.


The lightly raced seven-year-old posted an emphatic eight-length victory over General Miller in the Grade Two Neptune Investment Management Novices' Hurdle on Festival Trials Day last year before falling at the last when still in contention in the Grade One Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle at the Festival. On his latest start, Restless Harry stayed on resolutely to come home third behind Big Buck's and Grade One winner Lough Derg in the Long Walk Hurdle.


Dickin revealed: "Restless Harry runs in the Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham on Saturday week and I am hopeful that he can run a big race. He is tremendously well in himself and we always said that we would remain over hurdles this season because of his limited mileage.


"All we saw was the fog when he ran at Newbury but Lough Derg is a top-class horse on his day and it was far from a disgrace to go down by a head to him. There are probably four or five horses that are quite evenly matched behind Big Buck's but you should never be scared of taking on one horse - who would have thought that Kauto Star would have got beaten on Saturday?


"It's not his fault that he is competing in the top staying hurdles but when you run in those kind of races, then you are bound to take on champions like Big Buck's."