continued..........

Dato Star

A far cry, if you'll forgive the pun, from the stealthy Irish bring-'em-on-slowly approach, Relkeel and Dato Star had already won, Relkeel taking that Bula Hurdle and Dato Star the Christmas Hurdle, and that was as far as they usually get: both injury prone, they had both been Champion Hurdle hyped in the past only to fall victim to old war wounds.

But the Haydock trial was different, at least for one of the "glass" horses, Dato Star. He had his third consecutive victory of the season, winning almost as easily as Istabraq, while Far Cry made three or four novicey mistakes, not helped one bit by the suicidal pace set by Sunset Lodge.

With Far Cry now likely to be rescheduled for the Supreme Novices' Hurdle, Dato Star seems to stand alone against Istabraq's completing the Champion treble. Should the ground come up really soft, he might have a chance if, indeed, the glass-horse image is a thing of the past. If it is good ground on the day, he'll hardly dent Istabraq's armour and any threat of actually piercing it, possibly only a remote one at that, would more likely come from the very-lightly-raced top-of-the-ground horse Sir Talbot .

Willie Mullins

Winner of the County Hurdle at last year's Festival, Sir Talbot has been out of sorts this season, along with the rest of the string of trainer Jim Old. But maybe, like Willie Mullins, Jim's looking at the stars, too. Mullins was pleased, though not jubilant, with Florida Pearl's return to form in giving all that weight away at Leopardstown but he doesn't need reminding that, when partnered by the now-retired Richard Dunwoody, Florida Pearl was beaten 18 lengths into third by See More Business for the 1999 Gold Cup.

Most punters will tell you that See More Business is as far out on his own for the premiership of chasing as is Istabraq for prime minister of hurdles. All that "Pearl" has in hand of See More Business is two years of age, but two things have to be said about that: as wily Willie knows, a young horse won't have been improved by being "kept in his box for a month," whatever the proverbial intent of that remark, and, though See More Business is now 10, the key to his taking the highest rank wasn't found until a couple of weeks before last year's Gold Cup glory: blinkers!

See More Business

The "warning lamps" often mean that a horse is not giving his best, and the percentage success rate of first-time blinkers is very low (around 5%, Flat and jumps). They do work sometimes in getting a horse to concentrate at his fences; Paul Cole has used them sparingly but cleverly on two-year-olds on the Flat. See More Business was a different horse after they were fitted two weeks before the Gold Cup. They improved him 10lb, as his trainer, Paul Nicholls, freely admits.

Now the second rule about horses in blinkers is: beware that they don't work again, second time. But See More Business has improved again in them since, and now warrants a rating up with the best Cheltenham heroes of recent times. Whereas he beat Go Ballistic only a length in the Gold Cup, he had the same horse 17 lengths adrift at the end of the 1999 King George V1 Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day "without turning a hair", according to the official form-book and with old rivals Challenger du Luc and Dorans Pride tailed off.

Looks Like Trouble easily winning the Pillar Property Chase

The King George flop was Looks Like Trouble, whose trainer Noel Chance - winner of the 1997 Gold cup with Mr Mulligan - claimed the soft ground at Kempton was "as if two 56lb weights were attached to my horse's legs". Looks Like Trouble redeemed himself by beating Go Ballistic 'a distance' in the Pillar Property Chase back at Cheltenham on better ground at the end of January - similar terrain in fact to that which prevailed (the day before See More business won his Gold Cup) when Looks Like Trouble also recorded victory by 'a distance' in the Sun Alliance Novices Chase. Fans will say "Doesn't he love Cheltenham! Two wins by a distance!" But critics may respond that both the Sun Alliance and the Pillar Property wins were fortunate, that he has ironically scored his most notable victories because of trouble with a capital 'T'. The Sun Alliance was handed to him when Nick Dundee crashed out of the race, and, indeed, out of racing, and the Pillar Property was no race at all after Double Thriller was pulled up and Dr Leunt unfortunately succumbed to a heart attack. Go Ballistic, finishing second for the fifth time in six races, looked jaded. Only six ran.

But Looks Like Trouble could do no more than win easily. A famous heavyweight, I think Marciano (although the quote is probably apocryphal) was asked why his fights were over so quickly, and wasn't it because the opposition was poor. "I know I don't get much fighting" the great man replied with a feigned look of helpless honesty, "but the other guy keeps falling down." By the same token, in his Kempton flop, Looks Like Trouble was more like the British heavyweight Julius Francis to a See More Business resembling Mike Tyson in awesome power (though Tyson won in four minutes, about the same time as a Champion Hurdle!).