Champion Hurdle Tuesday

This looks like being the race of the Festival and a much stronger contest than last year when Binocular beat Khyber Kim. Binocular is an enigma- brilliant on his day like last year's Champion when he hurdled fluently and pulled clear up the hill. Ponderous on other days, like when beaten at Newbury and struggling home at Sandown. If he turns up in the same form as last year he's a big player, but could still be vulnerable to one of the young improvers. I can't have him at 3/1. Menorah is immensely likeable and has a fantastic attitude- Cue Card is running all over him in the International Hurdle between the last 2 yet he runs away from him up the hill. The doubts are that he hasn't run since that race in December and his hurdling could be better- he's inclined to fiddle one or two and can make mistakes. 5/1 is about right but wouldn't excite me. I won't be popular but I'm against the "Irish banker" Hurricane Fly for a couple of reasons. the most important of these is his jumping- he edges to the right at every hurdle- no problem when you're tootling around Leopardstown on soft ground but a major handicap in a Championship race at always-turning Cheltenham. Secondly his trainer has expressed concern as to how he will handle the whole Cheltenham hulabaloo being a highly strung individual. His lack of form at the track is another big worry. All in all no bargain at 5/1. Peddler's Cross is following the Hardy Eustace and Istabraq route from the old Sun Alliance 2m5f novice to the follwing year's Champion. I really like his attitude and think his price is a little bigger than it should be because everyone assumes that as a horse who stays 2 1/2 miles well he will get outpaced. I don't believe that to be true and feel he has a great chance of giving the North a Champion hurdler. If you see any 6/1 with a run between now and post time then snap it up. Oscar Whiskey would come into it on soft ground but I feel his jumping might let him down on good to soft or better. I can't entertain Dunguib- he still hasn't learnt to jump properly and will probably make at least 2 mistakes, too many to win this. Wasted year when he should have been jumping fences. Of the outsiders Thousand Stars interests me most as he's been to the track and performed winning the County Hurdle. He was sacrificed in the Irish Champion making the running but still wasn't beaten far. He is still available at 50/1 in places with a run 12.5/1 the place part of that looks very generous to me. 13/3/11 The news that Binocular misses the gig is good for us but sad nonetheless. I'm sure better judges than I will dissect this affair thoroughly in the coming days but my gut feeling is that the public should have been kept informed that there was a potential problem- that way noone would be trading the race in the dark as they were. Peddlers Cross 2nd 9/2, Thousand Stars 4th 33/1.