Punjabi can surprise yet again

RACING/CHAMPION HURDLE PREVIEW:EVEN HIS trainer, Nicky Henderson, admits Punjabi is "not very sexy", but one of the most unheralded title-holders can still join some legendary names by winning back-to-back Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdles at Cheltenham today.

If he does pull it off there will, no doubt, be a host of critics decrying Punjabi’s status alongside the likes of Sea Pigeon, Monksfield, Night Nurse and Hardy Eustace, not to mention hat-trick heroes such as Istabraq and See You Then.

It seems to be his lot to lose out in the glamour stakes beside some of his rivals, but when it comes to tackling the famous hill after 3.20pm this afternoon, none of the pretty boys will relish an eyeball-to-eyeball scrap quite like Punjabi.

That much was obvious last year when he divided Celestial Halo and his stable companion Binocular, both of whom are back, and whose supporters will dismiss their conqueror’s 22 to 1 success 12 months ago as a fluke.

Pretty much every one of Punjabi’s 11 declared opponents will feel something similar, too, which only emphasises just how unsexy his profile is, because out of the whole field he looks to hold the most solid claims.

A warm-up victory at Kempton a couple of weeks ago meant nothing in form terms, but it did indicate this notoriously difficult horse to get fit is coming to the boil at exactly the right time.

“Punjabi might lack sex-appeal but he wears a crown that says Champion Hurdle on it,” Henderson said yesterday.

“Last year he thumped in the Kingwell coming into the race, whereas this time he could not have had a better preparation.”

Just like last year, his other Cheltenham preps this season have been treated as just that – preps. Punjabi always starts to peak at springtime, and has proven his ability to grind out a performance at the festival more than once.

Quite how another of his stable companions, Zaynar, is trading at much the same odds as him is remarkable considering last year’s Triumph winner couldn’t land a 1 to 14 price at Kelso last time and has been discarded by Barry Geraghty.

Binocular, too, has hardly had an ideal run-in, being all but ruled out a number of weeks ago due to suspected physical problems, but is now back in the reckoning after veterinary examinations revealed nothing.

That’s not exactly encouraging for a horse whose general form this season is not a patch on the previous one.

Many Irish fans are experiencing similar anxieties – except with an even more current frisson – in Solwhit, who last week was on antibiotics and who was only confirmed a definite runner on Sunday.

It has been a tension-racked run-in for the Charles Byrnes team who, even without these health problems, would have been looking at the drying Cheltenham surface with less than enthusiasm.

Byrnes has made no secret of the fact he ideally wants soft ground for Solwhit over two miles, but the five-time Grade One winner isn’t going to get it.

In his place, Go Native has leapt to favouritism, and to the role of principal Irish flag-bearer, something the WBX company must be delighted about in PR terms because of the €1.1 million bonus they face paying out if Noel Meade’s star wins today.

Victories in a farcically-run Fighting Fifth at Newcastle and in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton have put Go Native in an enviable position, especially as he is proven over the course and distance from last year’s Supreme.

However, he appears to be very short odds for a horse that has to come from off the pace and whose tie-up on the Kempton run-in provoked inevitable comparisons to his former stablemate, Harchibald, the 2005 Champion Hurdle runner-up who snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

Significantly, it is Khyber Kim, a horse he used to train, that Henderson fears most, but he has to be ridden from off the pace too and such tactics are inherently more risky. In comparison, Punjabi remains admirably straightforward, a trait that might not get the girls but which today can help secure the prize.

1. Punjabi

2. Khyber Kim

3. Jumbo Rio