Graham ‘Wayward Lad’ Bradley – Cheltenham Preview Part 3
With just over a week to go until the Festival we catch up with Blue Square’s special guest Cheltenham blogger, Gold Cup winning jockey Graham Bradley. The ‘Wayward Lad’ tells us why last year’s Champion Hurdle form is not up to scratch. Blue Square PR Manager Alan Alger poses the questions:Alan – Graham, after what you told us last time about the difference between the two tracks I decided to re-watch some of last year’s races and pretty much every race played out as you’d said. On Tuesday and Wednesday very few got into contention from behind – including Champion Hurdle winner Punjabi – how did you rate the form of that race overall?
Graham – The simple answer is ‘I don’t!’ You can see that it hasn’t worked out this season. To me they’ve all looked too slow. Ok they’ve said the ground was bad, especially the Nicholls team regarding Celestial Halo. They’ve also said the better ground will improve their chances, and they would know, but I’d be looking elsewhere.
Alan – Where?
Graham – Well it’s very open but I really like the look of Khyber Kim. The International Hurdle (at Cheltenham in December) was no fluke. He actually made the other contenders for the race look slow and the ground wasn’t that bad – just genuine soft ground. The other one is Go Native, a horse that is speedy and improving. The Fighting Fifth (Newcastle in November) looked poor on the clock but the Christmas Hurdle (Kempton in December) form looked solid, again with a few of the other contenders in behind.
Alan – So you’d prefer to be with a horse that’s been consistent all season rather than peaking at the right time?
Graham – Well I guess more so than ever before – trainers are aiming at mid-March for peak performances from their horses. It’s not as simple as that! When I won the Gold Cup on Bregawn we really fancied our chances because our boy got there with very few problems during the season. I looked around at the start and saw horses that had one problem or another in their build-up and that made me confident. This is championship racing – there’s no time for breathers or for breaks. You have to be there 100% fit and competitive from the off otherwise you might as well not bother. Take a horse like Binocular, we don’t know anything new about him from the Sandown race, all we do know is that the preparation has had a few hiccups and that’s enough to put me off.
Alan – Talking of Binocular? Should the McManus team supplement Get Me Out Of Here if he fails to sparkle?
Graham – I don’t think Get Me Out Of Here has what it takes. He’s not a big strapping strong horse and his rating suggests he is reams away from being a champion hurdler. I respect what he has achieved up until now and the performance in the Newbury Trophy (February) race was a great training feat. They always say you should never be afraid of one horse – so why not go for the Supreme, if not I’m sure the handicap (entered into the Vincent O’Brien County Hurdle) gives him a very good chance of winning one race next week! A nice problem to have!
Alan – You mentioned Go Native earlier, let’s tie that in to the course form from the 2009 Supreme?
Graham – Last year’s Supreme was run in an almost identical time to the Champion. In my mind that makes last year’s Novice form key to this Champion Hurdle, as I said earlier Go Native has improved markedly from that race as the ratings show.
Alan – Talking of Novices’ – if you were part of the Dunguib team would you advise a crack at the Champion?
Graham – Definitely not, and it looks as though they have made the right decision. He is a champion in the making but it would be madness to take the others on. I’m not saying he wouldn’t have a chance of going close but it could also ruin the horse for ever and I think he has a great future ahead of him. On what we’ve seen already who knows what the horse could achieve. He could be a horse capable of going on to greater things over the bigger obstacles, providing it was only the ground that has made his hurdle jumping sketchy. We’ll find out next week, he doesn’t dive at them he just doesn’t pick up as much as you’d want. If I was his stable jockey I’d have ruled out this year’s Champion Hurdle from the outset.
Join us tomorrow as Graham gives us more of his Champion Hurdle thoughts and why it’s right for Cheltenham to water…
Author: Alan Alger
Comments
kxtwar | 10 Apr 2010 at 09:15