For a hurdler with an official rating of 155, My Tent Or Yours has been a long time without a victory but the runner-up in last year’s Champion Hurdle will have an excellent chance to record his first success over timber since December 2013 when he lines up for Cheltenham’s Grade Two International Hurdle on Saturday, the most valuable event at the track’s final meeting before Christmas.
My Tent Or Yours is one of 10 entries for the International, a race that many racegoers still remember fondly under its former name of the Bula Hurdle, but the field lined up against him could shrink significantly by the weekend due to the unusually fast ground that currently holds sway at Cheltenham.
The New course, which takes over as the stage for Cheltenham’s racing until the first day of the Festival in March, has been watered several times in recent weeks, while the cross-country course, which is due to stage a race postponed from the track’s November meeting when the ground on the infield was officially hard in places, has also been selectively watered to ease patches of firm going.
The ground on the main track is expected to be on the faster side of good this weekend, and little or no rain is forecast in the West Country before the first day of the International meeting on Friday. My Tent Or Yours and Hargam, a stable companion at Nicky Henderson’s stable, are among entries with form on quicker ground, but it remains to be seen how many of their possible opponents turn up to take them on.
“There is every possibility that both My Tent Or Yours and Hargam will run,” Henderson said on Monday. “That is the plan at the moment. Good ground will help them both, and looking at the forecast that is what I hope we will get.”
Several bookmakers put up prices on Monday, including Stan James, the race sponsor, and were unanimous in making Yanworth, the recent winner of the Grade Two Coral Hurdle at Ascot, the favourite, at a top price of 9-4. However, Alan King said on Monday evening that his six-year-old is unlikely to run on Saturday, and more likely to wait instead for the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton Park.
“I think it’s unlikely,” King said. “It’s not the ground, but I think My Tent Or Yours [who is also owned by JP McManus] is more likely to run. I think he’s only a back-up entry at the minute, and he gets a penalty as well, as it’s only a Grade Two. He’s in, but I don’t think he’ll be running.
“Yanworth will probably go to the Christmas Hurdle [on 26 December], and he has an entry in Ireland [at Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting] as well.”
If Yanworth is indeed absent on Saturday, the early betting suggests that My Tent Or Yours would be favoured to beat The New One, a familiar opponent who finished fourth in the Champion Hurdle last year, and third in the same race in 2014 when My Tent Or Yours was the runner-up behind Jezki.
The New One has been entered after plans to send him chasing were – perhaps temporarily – put on hold, and will be attempting to win the International Hurdle for the third time in four years. Other possible runners in Saturday’s race include Old Guard, successful 12 months ago, and Ivan Grozny, from the Willie Mullins stable, who took a Grade Two hurdle at Tipperary in early October.
The market on the weekend’s big betting race, the Caspian Caviar Gold Cup Handicap Chase, also opened on Monday, with Warren Greatrex’s Aloomomo, the beaten favourite in the Close Brothers Novice Handicap Chase at the Festival in March, the narrow favourite at 15-2 ahead of Village Vic and Taquin Du Sueil, the winner of the Bet Victor Gold Cup at the Open meeting last month, on 8-1.
Village Vic, the winner of Saturday’s race last season, was beaten by only a neck by Taquin Du Sueil last time out, and will be 2lb better off on Saturday. “He came out of last month’s excellent run really well and he absolutely loves it at Cheltenham,” Richard Johnson, who will ride Village Vic for Philip Hobbs, said on Monday.
“It’s amazing that they might have to water the course at this time of year. We’d ideally prefer good-to-soft ground, but the softer it gets, the harder it is to concede the weight, so it isn’t a worry at the moment. It will be another very competitive race, but I’d like to think he’ll put up another bold show.”
