Buveur D’Air made rapid strides towards the front of the betting for the Champion Hurdle on Tuesday without leaving Nicky Henderson’s stable, as the trainer announced that the six-year-old’s novice chasing career has been put on hold and he will revert to hurdles at the Cheltenham Festival.
Having been available at 40-1 less than a week ago, Buveur D’Air is now as short as 5-1 to give Henderson a record-breaking sixth success in the Champion Hurdle, the highlight of the first day of the meeting on 14 March.
Buveur D’Air’s form as a novice hurdler last season ties in closely with that of Petit Mouchoir, the winner of the Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown two days ago and a leading ante-post contender for Cheltenham at 5-1. Buveur D’Air was third in the Supreme Novice Hurdle at Cheltenham behind his stable companion Altior, a race in which Petit Mouchoir finished eighth, and he went on to beat Petit Mouchoir into second place by a neck in the Grade One Top Novice Hurdle at Aintree’s Grand National meeting.
Like Altior and also Min, the runner-up in the Supreme, Buveur D’Air was sent chasing this season and was a comfortable winner of his first two starts over fences. He was the second-favourite for the JLT Novice Chase at Cheltenham with most bookmakers prior to Tuesday’s news, released via a blog on the website of Stan James, the Champion Hurdle’s sponsor. Buveur D’Air will now also miss the Grade 1 Scilly Isles Novice Chase at Sandown on Saturday, a race for which he had been made favourite in early betting.
“We’re thinking that he’ll go to the Morebattle Hurdle [at Kelso on 16 February],” Henderson said on Tuesday evening. “He’s entered in the Contenders’ [at Sandown on Saturday] but obviously [Alan King’s] Yanworth runs in that and JP [McManus, who owns both horses] won’t want him to take on Yanworth. We’ll probably run Brain Power there [at Sandown].
“The form with Petit Mouchoir is obviously very solid. He’s won both his novice chases and won them well, so we’re sacrificing that [his novice status] but he’ll be able to run in graduation chases and races like that, but he’s still young and we’ve been mulling it over for a few days now. I entered him in the Champion Hurdle three weeks ago because it was on my mind, whereas I haven’t put Altior in the Champion Hurdle, because it’s not.”
Buveur D’Air is now top-priced at 8-1 for the Champion Hurdle, in a market headed by Faugheen, the 2015 winner, at 5-2, despite his failure to appear for the first time in a year at Leopardstown last weekend. Petit Mouchoir is a 5-1 chance along with Yanworth, and it is 10-1 bar.
The All Party Parliamentary Group on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) on Tuesday added its weight to calls for a dramatic reduction in the maximum stake on gaming machines in high-street betting shops, when it published a detailed report concluding that there is “a strong case for the stake being set at £2”, rather than the current level of £100.
The MPs who compiled the report heard testimony on the issue from a wide range of interested parties, with the notable exception of bookmakers, who refused to engage with the committee. The report noted that both Tracey Crouch, the minister with responsibility for gambling, and Sarah Harrison, the chief executive of the Gambling Commission, had expressed “surprise” at the bookmakers’ decision.
The department of culture, media and sport is due to publish its triennial review of the stakes on gaming machines in the next few weeks. In addition to its conclusion that a reduction to £2 should be strongly considered, the APPG also cast doubt on claims by the bookmaking industry that a reduction in stakes would lead to widespread closures of high-street shops.
Wednesday tips by Greg Wood
Leicester
2.10 Huff And Puff 2.40 Paddocks Lounge 3.10 Expedite 3.40 Fingerontheswitch (nap) 4.10 Tommy Rapper (nb) 4.40 Seven Summits
Hereford
1.30 Way Of The World 2.00 Dig Deeper 2.30 Subcontinent 3.00 Alcala 3.30 Goodtoknow 4.00 Pacha Du Polder 4.30 Born For War
Kempton Park
2.20 American Patrol 2.50 Drumochter 3.20 Bois Du Boulogne 3.50 Garter 4.20 Lexington Times 4.50 Alcatraz 5.20 Canadian Diamond
Newcastle
4.25 Go George Go 5.00 Mama Africa 5.30 Zandradee 6.00 Vatican Hill 6.30 Rock Warbler 7.00 Dodgy Bob
