Harchibald pulled out of AIG
A diamond in the pack of this year’s Champion Hurdle hopefuls, the six-year-old has landed his last three starts in impressive fashion and will head straight to Cheltenham on March 15 without another run.
“The ground is not ideal following plenty of rain and I’ve decided to give the race on Sunday a miss,” said the County Meath handler.
“I didn’t want to work him this morning if he wasn’t going to run and I’ve decided to give him an easy week instead.”
Harchibald is the general 3-1 favourite for the Champion Hurdle, and confirming he wouldn’t run again before the Festival, Meade added: “We’ll try and bring him there fresh.”
Another leading fancy for the Irish and English Champion Hurdles, Accordion Etoile, is not certain to line-up at Leopardstown this weekend.
“There was three inches of snow on The Curragh on Tuesday so we went to Dooninga gallops instead to work and he did it well,” Paul Nolan said of his impressive Greatwood Hurdle winner.
“However, we all know he doesn’t jump well out of that ground and it looks like a Champion Hurdle without Back In Front, so I’m still not sure whether we’ll go there given the recent heavy rain around the country.”
Meanwhile, Ladbrokes have reported significant support for the Martin Pipe-trained Tamarinbleu for the Totesport Trophy Hurdle Handicap at Newbury on Saturday week.
The gelding, who was an impressive winner at Sandown earlier in the month, was cut from 10-1 into 8-1 by the firm for the valuable Grade Three contest, despite the fact that Pipe has 15 other entries including Westender, 2002 winner Copeland and the second favourite Marcel.
Another of Pipe’s horses, Miss Academy, was popular in totesport’s ante-post market for the JCB Triumph Hurdle, and the firm cut the filly from 40-1 into 16-1.
