Baracouda Bids To Regain Crown

The advent of a four-day Festival means the staying hurdlers take centre stage for the first time at Cheltenham tomorrow, with the great Baracouda once again looking the one to beat.

The Francois Doumen-trained 10-year-old has shaped just as good as ever this season and goes in search of a third stayers´ crown in a race now run as the Ladbrokes World Hurdle.

He was victorious in 2002 and 2003, and was narrowly denied a hat-trick by Iris´s Gift 12 months ago.

The Doumen yard already have a Festival winner to their name thanks to Kelami´s efforts on the opening day, and confidence in Baracouda is high.

'The yard seems to be in good form and that could be a good sign for my horse because he is as just as well as the others,' Doumen said.

'I have got no shadow of a doubt about his preparation, so I count myself very lucky.

'Kelami´s victory means the yard is in good form and the horses are well.

Last week we won a Group Three at Saint-Cloud - even the Flat horses are well. 'To be surrounded by healthy horses can only be good for Baracouda. I consider him to be just as strong as ever, if not better.'

Robert Thornton, however, is out to bite the hand that fed him when he partners Crystal D´Ainay.

The rider was on board Kelami in the William Hill Trophy, and rides L´Ami for the Frenchman later today.

But he will be on the other side tomorrow.

Baracouda and Crystal D´Ainay are old rivals, but the latter has yet to come out on top in three meetings, although he did come very close at Windsor in December.

'It´s great to have a winner on the first day of the meeting and I am looking forward to riding Crystal D´Ainay against Baracouda,' Thornton said.

Alan King´s charge bounced back to winning ways in the Rendlesham Hurdle at Kempton last month when he was fitted with a visor for the first time.

'He´ll have the headgear on again and if they improve him two or 3lb, it could be very close between the two of them,' Thornton added.

Willie Mullins is hoping his decision to run Rule Supreme in the World Hurdle rather than the totesport Gold Cup will pay dividends.

The County Carlow trainer has chosen to take on Baracouda rather than go for jumping´s blue riband on Friday because he feels it represents the horse´s best chance at the meeting.

Rule Supreme has already proved himself to be a top chaser, winning the Royal & SunAlliance at the Festival 12 months ago, and the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup at Leopardstown last month when he accounted for a below-par Beef Or Salmon by 14 lengths.

But he has also shown he can live with the best staying hurdlers, as he was a close third to Baracouda and Crystal D´Ainay at Windsor, beaten three-quarters

of a length and a neck.

And the prospect of drying ground, together with a relatively large field in the Gold Cup, has swayed the County Carlow to swerve the big one.

'The weather forecast says it is going to be fairly dry. They were forecasting two millimetres of rain last night which didn´t arrive. They are forecasting six millimetres tonight, but we think that by Friday the going will be good, if not riding fast,' Mullins told Racing UK.

'When Best Mate dropped out a lot of other people came in. There´s maybe going to be 15 plus runners. We would prefer a race with about eight or 10 runners and once it looked like there were going to be more than 12 runners, we said we´d drop out.

'He´s not the world´s best jumper and he would need a lot more room and daylight to jump.

'When he´s been wrong David can put him left or right and correct him. In a Gold Cup you don´t get that opportunity with that amount of runners and we felt our best chance was to go for the World Hurdle.'

As expected, Mullins has also declared Rule Supreme for the Gold Cup as a precautionary measure in case he should have a mishap early in tomorrow´s race.

? PA Sport