Tent set for Fighting test

Nicky Henderson expects to find out a little more about the top-level claims of My Tent Or Yours when he takes his chance the StanJames.com Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle.

The six-year-old is expected to go off as the odds-on favourite for the Grade One contest, which Henderson won in 2008 with Punjabi on the way to the Champion Hurdle, but twice saw Binocular beaten.

Henderson said: "He got to (a rating of) 160 as a novice and he's got to get to around 175 (to be a Champion Hurdle horse), but a novice could improve a stone.

"He didn't do much wrong as a novice hurdler and we took him away last week. Some of ours have needed a run more than you would have expected, but he worked very well and he's pretty straight.

"The reason for (going to) the Fighting Fifth is it tees you up nicely for the Christmas Hurdle and Melodic Rendezvous et al will give us a guide.

"We're taking the Darlan route, he has exactly the same profile, although he won the Betfair Hurdle and Darlan would have done (before falling).

"They are both very talented and we had the same sort of dilemma about going chasing or stay hurdling (after finishing second in the Supreme Novices' Hurdle) but we stuck to the same route. He came around at the right time, after we lost Darlan, but of course we wish we still had both of them. Hopefully the ground isn't too soft."

Main market rival Melodic Rendezvous is trained by Jeremy Scott, who acknowledges his charge potentially faces the acid test of his Cheltenham claims at this level.

A smart novice last term, he was forced to miss Cheltenham and Aintree, but returned in some style when winning the Elite Hurdle at Wincanton.

Scott said: "He's in good form and this race was the main plan since Wincanton. The handicapper left him on a mark where he would have been able to run in the Gerry Feilden at Newbury, but we've got to try the Fighting Fifth.

"We thought before Wincanton he would probably come on for the run and hopefully he has. He probably didn't have the best jump over two out and he probably did it well in the end. Most of our horses have taken one run, so I thought he would have needed it. I think he would have come on for the run.

"Chasing is still on the agenda (if hurdling does not work out), it's very much take it one race at a time and see how we get on. In terms of what he has achieved and what he could achieve, he's probably the best horse I've had. It's not going to be easy but we will give it a good crack.

"My Tent Or Yours looks the one to beat, but if we're not able to beat the rest of them, we'll know which way we've got to go for the rest of the season."

Last year's renewal saw Countrywide Flame spring a minor surprise in turning over the odds-on Supreme winner Cinders And Ashes, and trainer John Quinn goes for back-to-back wins through the filly Cockney Sparrow.

The four-year-old is on a hat-trick, and was most recently successful in a Listed mares' hurdle at Wetherby.

Quinn said: "She's in very good fettle. We know she's got to step up a lot on what she's done to date, but it's worth having a go and we're looking forward to it. She gets 7lb off the others which will help a bit.

"She's got plenty of speed, she'd have a bit more than the other juveniles I've had and her Listed-race win has been franked. She has to improve, but she's a filly and it's a Grade One - if she's placed that's great.

"It's a horse race, she's well and her owner is going to breed off her so if she got Grade One-placed that's important. I don't think I'm pitching her in too deep, it's a realistic pitch."

The John Ferguson-trained Cotton Mill was second to My Tent Or Yours in the Betfair Hurdle at Newbury in February, but things have not quite gone right since and he was only fourth to Melodic Rendezvous at Wincanton.

Ferguson said: "I just feel he has probably lost a touch of it (pace) and Wincanton probably wasn't the right place to run him. He needs more of a galloping track. He's got quality and a galloping track like Newcastle will suit him."