Zarkandar?

I just hope it's reaction to Hurricane Fly winning easily yesterday and punters laying because Ruby wont be riding


But I thought we already knew that he'd pick the Fly?

BTW surely this horse has to be backed in running rather than ante post as the lazy bastard always looks beat

Must touch big prices imho

watching last years CH again, it looks worse every time I see it, peoples eye gets taken by him staying on strongly but what we should be taking out of the race is how hopelessly outpaced he gets, the recent run in the international saw him again travelling worst of the 3 and whilst his race fitness against the other 2 enabled him to prevail there, he'll lose ground in the big one, can't have him, the fly and ror for me.

Worked like an absolute drain recently from what I know but he is never the best worker anyhoo I believe

That might be the reason fwiw

Edward as clueless about his racing as he is with his football i see.

Zarkandar has never worked well at home,He's not that type,Does all his best work on the track,Check the price he won at on his debut,
Totally friendless in the market and píssed up,HTH.

I wouldn't be absolutely convinced of that although there has to be some grounds for concern. As Nichols said he simply wasn't himself by the time of the champion last year and looked a totally different horse on a flat 2 miles at Wincanton first time up this year. Similarly he set a sedate pace until going down to the second last in the International as evidence by the proximity of the rags and this race essentially turned into a 3 furlong sprint and still nothing could get past him. He reminds me very much of Katchit.

^ yep, tough bugger he is.

Reminds me of a certain Hardy Eustace tbh

In fact, for any horse in most cases to win the champion hurdle they can not experience anything like being out paced and have to come from anywhere too far back in the race, you have to be able to hold a position at all costs whether you're under pressure or not, if you want to find a winner of the race that made up stacks of ground to win you have to go back a long way....so that scenario that zarkandar experienced last year is highly unlikely to succeed, he was niggled at to the 3rd last and then when they stepped it up was absolutely left for dead, he's guaranteed to lack the toe to compete when they quicken.

I think it reasonable to assume Zarkandar wasn't right last March. Obviously that assumption will be tested this year.

Zarkandar is a tough as old boots and rates a big danger to all this year. It surprised me this year his ability to handle soft conditions, as a juvenile P.N wouldn't contemplate running the horse on soft going and now he's won a G2 on heavy. He looks a different horse. I backed him in Feb when he was fortunate to beat Darlan who crashed out at the 3rd last when cantering. Darlan was receiving 5 lb that day.
I believe that fall set Darlan back slightly last year and believe he will win this years champion hurdle but I won't want him in a battle with Zarkandar coming up to the line.

I REALLY like Zarkandar, however imho the race would need to be run at a strong even relentless pace to see Zarkandar triumph, if there is one thing that Zarkandar has above almost all opponents is amazing battling qualities, just when the others are struggling for stamina Zarkandar just keeps going, it was mooted/touted that it would be better over further than 2m and tbh it certainly looks that way, BUT Nicholls has scotched that in the past, does that mean it is simply his best chance in CH or does he truly rate it as best over 2m?, Ruby has never been THAT enthusiastic about Zarkandar either, its a muddling picture esp as last year the stable was under a cloud with a virus just before Cheltenham, despite that Zarkandar won the Betfair hurdle in amazing style, since then Nicholls has said it wasnt 100%, it looked very slightly framed too last year, maybe some maturing has improved it even more. It looked superb when Grandouet came as if to beat it and it relentlessy out-battled Grandouet, I remember saying last year if it was close going up the hill it would win, same opinion this year.

I think it is a certainty that Ruby will ride The Fly and most people who have had an AP bet on Zark will have done so with this expectation. I dont think Ruby riding The Fly will impact Zark price. Its expected and built in.

I think Zark will probably attempt to make all.

judorick 06 Jan 13 19:30 
just a comment about 'getting outpaced':

Some have said that Zark got outpaced in last year's CH and that may be true but an important question to ask is:-

at what stage of the race did he get outpaced? And why was that?

My answer is that he got outpaced as they jumped the 3rd last and approached the second last and the reason for that was that they went very steadily up to that point and it was an advantage to be on or near the pace.

Indeed, two former Champion Hurdle winners, who were also held up, were both equally unable to cope with the pace profile of the race and it is to their and Zarkandar's credit that they were able to close the gap. Basically Overturn was allowed to set some pretty soft fractions and Rock on Ruby who was ridden close to the pace was the beneficiary.


No, HF and binocular's situation is totally different to zarkandars, yes it was at the 3rd last where it all happened, but hf and binocular left zark behind along with the others up front, they then made up ground but the effort ended with them flattening out when it proved too much.....this is when zark after being left behind stayed on and closed down those in front who'd flattened out, that's two quite opposite routes through the race.

As for zark being  sick or not right, did he run like it, i don't think so, he certainly didn't look sick when he stayed on best of all did he, he ran his race but displayed the frailty that he has got...getting outpaced.

Yes he's a battler but battling alone can't keep him in there if he can't go with them, you can point to the international as a shiny example of his battling qualities but it's the fact that he had to battle so hard in that race, where he had fitness on his side (and now being healthy too!) that shows his frailties too, because for all the race you could see that he was just travelling the worse of the 3 and needed all that battling quality to get home.

People talk about a fast pace suiting him because he'll be able to finish stronger and get up the hill best, but this ignores the first part of that equation, the bit about him not going with that pace in the first place and in the champion hurdle horses do not make up serious amounts of ground after being at it to win the race because the top class horses up front don't fall into a hole, they keep going, it just doesn't happen.I think he's got a similar profile to solwhit, strong gutsy but highly likely to get out-paced on soft or good ground.

Been keen on Zarkandar for this race for a while and suggested this was his year in threads for last year's Betfair. Therefore perhaps guilty of looking through rose tinted glasses.

As been documented and commented on here, I agree that the horse was not 100% last year. Lets not forget he did not reappear until the Betfair in February after a couple of setbacks so clearly PFN hadn't had a clear run with him.

After that race it was widely reported that he coughed and it was at a time that the stable was under a cloud and their record was 1 winner out of the last how ever may runners - that winner was this chap.

I listened to the CH in the car and the paddock reporter on 5Live suggested he looked 'dreadful'. This again was backed up in the papers and by Nicholls himself.

Last year he was only 5 with little hurdling experience. Considering all of this imo he ran a remarkable race at Cheltenham and I backed him for this year after that.

I agree that Ruby has never been a particular fan of the horse, describing him as 'too slow' for the CH. He does seem to get outpaced, or seem not to travel as well as others, as was advertised in the International. I admit that does raise some concerns though it also confirmed to me that nothing will finish better than him presuming its a decent gallop. Whilst some have commented that Zark was race fit over his two rivals, I don't necessarily buy that. Of course Grandouet was coming back from a year back but the fact that Henderson hasn't given him a busier campaign says he doesn't need racing to be ready. ROR also is seen to be very good 'fresh'.

There are negatives/question marks about many at the front of the market. Zarkandar is a young horse that seems to be improving and if in contention at the last will win imo. duffy you may prove to be right that he'll not be in that position at the last, but just think a year on, now healthy he will be however 'ugly' it may look.

Perhaps he didn't - but aren't you just assuming that was down to fitness?

"All about the price on the day for me."




Budd - you basically wrote off the horses chances, so what does the price have to do with anything ?

Whaen a horse is travelling as well as ROR was Roo,then i assume its fitness,or something amiss.
Nothing has been reported as being wrong with him,and the stable were reportedly pleased with him.
That tells me that he will be a lot better next time.

Yes its possible the ground played a part,but it really looked to the eye(well mine anyway) he simply blew up.
I expect him to turn up in March ready as he was last year.

No idea when hes out next,but i will be amazed if he aint out pretty soon.
If he aint,i would start to get a tad concerned.
I'm not at this stage.