IS ANYONE LAYING BIG BUCKS HEAVILY........IF SO WHY

wont be laying him but if Ruby rides him out the back like he has done for most of em during the week could well be very hard work on this faster ground to pull the likes of Oscar back.

can't see him riding out the back. always been ridden fairly handy over the last year or so.

i'd worry about him purely due to the poor runs from the nicholls stable so far this week. considering rock on ruby is technically not even at his stables.

price isn't backable but i wouldn't want to be sitting laying it too much. would just feel bad if you layed your b*llox on it and it did its usual thing of winning.

Thinking about taking him on as looks more strength in depth to the race than normal.

Last 2 years very little opposition. This year 4 or 5 horses that have speed, just a case of whether they have the stamina as well.

So BB should trade even bigger than normal this year and may not pick them all up this time.

henderson form got to be a plus for layers....he can do no wrong. he walks on water, transforms horses into festival machines, he pulls off miracles...why just today...he even made a last fence disappear when he needed it. just cant lose :o

james

I dont think the nichols horses have been running too badly he just hasnt had a strong hand in the races at cheltenham so far.

I think they have run largely as expected. Most of them were big ish odds anyway. I didnt know that rock on ruby wasnt at is stables.

'...why just today....he even made a last fence disappear when he needed it. just cant lose'

and when your luck is out everything just seems to go against you, but when your luck is in amazing how some things just happen.....

I have not been totally convinced by BB this season - he has won OK eventually but been made to work a bit 2 or 3 out and tomorrow could be the day to lay him for decent money as there are some very useful opponents (some improving and not fully unexposed) and he looks too short to me. Laid at 1.64 tonight

I think he has looked better than ever this year.

re last race he won 6 weeks ago at cheltenham......

We could have ridden him a lot handier on the pace but we were mindful that we want to save some petrol for Cheltenham and not be too hard on him. We have six weeks now to not be so hard on him. I can afford to just freshen him a little bit. He looks fitand lean and well now which he wasn´t earlier in the season. - Paul Nicholls, trainer

dont think BB has faced anything of the calibre of Oscar Whiskey for sometime, if ever and think the race will already have been won by the time OW is off the bridle. the worry is Geraghty trying to get smart and trying to win the race in the last 200 yards which as we have seen over the years doesnt work as you cant outstay BB.

i suppose the law of averages will catch up on him eventually, tomorrow? if it does it,ll be something from a red hot stable

not 100% o.w stays and if he does he still has to beat b.b

I am laying him tomorrow as I feel that while he is an all time great it is down to lack of opposition. In his three wins he has beat the following horses who went on to go chasing the year after

Punchestowns - did nothing and was proven to be average handicapper
Time For Rupert - proven to be average handicapper
Grand Crus - today proven to be an average handicapper

Big Bucks is now up against the following:
Oscars Whiskey - Proven Grade 1 performer and third in Champion Hurdle
Thousand Stars - Top Class animal won/placed in multiple Grade 1s and won French Champion Hurdle over 3m2f
So Young - Form of last years Neptune horses that finished in front of So Young (2nd in RSA, Champion Hurdle Winner, Champ Hurdle 6th) and is proven over 3miles

If Big Bucks beats this field tomorrow which part of me hopes he does, then he will be an all time great, if he gets beat, then he goes down in history like Best Mate - consistent horse and best of his era but beat nothing

Thing is, those horses who he beat in the last 3 WHs went chasing because their trainers didn't want to take on BB again as they couldn't see any way of beating him.  And you can't judge their performance as hurdlers by what they did or didn't go on to do over fences - two very different spheres.  Let's face it, BB himself was beaten by Moon Over Miami, Krugyrova and Finger Onthe Pulse as a novice chaser.