• Champion Hurdle fancy less than 50-50 to run next week • Trainer Charles Byrnes reports horse is on antibiotics Solwhit, the Irish Champion Hurdle winner, is “less than 50-50″ to run in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham next week after developing a cough, Charles Byrnes, his trainer, said. Solwhit’s participation had been in doubt after a poor scope yesterday, and is on a course of antiobiotics, but if anything, his condition seems to have deteriorated over the last 24 hours. “Solwhit coughed four or five times today,” Byrnes told racingpost.com. ” I more or less expected that to be the case, and that he would get worse before he gets better.
Solwhit has setback in race to be fit for Cheltenham Festival
Henry de Bromhead’s star is on the rise
Irish trainer Henry de Bromhead is hoping it will be third time lucky at the Festival for Sizing Europe in the Arkle Trophy.
Nigel Twiston-Davies bullish about Khyber Kim in Champion Hurdle
• Trainer dismisses form fears ahead of Cheltenham • Baby Run and Imperial Commander fancied for Festival Nigel Twiston-Davies said that his string could not be in better form ahead of the Cheltenham Festival next week, despite having failed to register a winner from 23 runners since Razor Royale’s success in the Racing Post Chase. “I noticed that I’ve crept on to the ‘cold’ list in the Racing Post,” Twiston-Davies said, “but what that doesn’t take into account is all the horses that are [placed]. They are running well, but you’re not going to run your best horses in the week before Cheltenham. The best ones are at home and dying to run.” Among the trainer’s team for the Festival are Khyber Kim, prominent in the betting for the Champion Hurdle, and Imperial Commander, an obvious each-way bet for any punters looking beyond Kauto Star and Denman in the Gold Cup
Fallon pulls out of Festival ride
Leading Flat jockey Kieren Fallon makes a late decision to pull out of an intended ride at the Cheltenham Festival.
Barry Geraghty says favourite Go Native is the one to beat in Champion Hurdle
At the country’s major Cheltenham Festival preview night Nicky Henderson’s stable jockey said he fears the prize may be going the way of an Irish stable Westmanstown Golf Club, Dublin – 3rd March 2010 Panel: Colm Murray M.C. (CM); Davy Russell (DR); Colm Murphy (MPH); Donn McLean (DM); Evan Williams (EW); Barry Geraghty (BG); Paddy Power (PP) Supreme Novice Hurdle CM: Rock solid Irish favourite in Dunguib. Backbone of everyone’s doubles, and trebles . .
Talking Horses: The best bets and all the latest news plus our weekly tipping competition
The latest news and best bets, plus the second day of our weekly tipping competition Today’s best bets, by Chris Cook First a word about Solwhit, the latest horse to be felled by the curse that appears to have settled on Champion Hurdle contenders. What odds should he be for the race, now that we know he is a trifle unwell? If you back Solwhit now, your bet is effectively a double – you are betting that he is good enough to win the race and also that he will turn up in peak condition on the day. Before he coughed on the gallops, he was a 4-1 shot, so let’s say that’s a fair assessment of the chances of a fully fit Solwhit.
Saturday at the Cheltenham Festival would be a royal success | Greg Wood
The popularity of weekend racing at Royal Ascot shows Cheltenham could find a new and lasting audience There is a sense of inevitability that the Cheltenham Festival will run from Wednesday to Saturday some time soon, if not in 2012 then probably the year after that. There are still plenty of issues to address, not least what will happen to the Midlands National, the biggest race of the season at Uttoxeter, but there is also a widespread acceptance that racing needs to make more of its major assets. On that basis, a Festival held entirely on weekdays looks like an event with an afternoon going to waste.
Wigan 1-0 Liverpool
Hugo Rodallega puts a huge dent in Liverpool’s hopes of securing a top-four finish as the Colombian’s gives Wigan a 1-0 victory in their Premier League clash at the DW Stadium.
14-1 chance Bothy can end Brian Ellison’s Cheltenham jinx
Bothy is a tough young hurdler who keeps finding more under pressure and great value in the Fred Winter.
Diary: voices of racing unite in charity song
A charity single ‘Cheltenham’ – to the tune of Petula Clark’s signature hit ‘Downtown’ – can be downloaded for 99p.