Kim primed for Christmas

NIGEL Twiston-Davies is eagerly anticipating getting Khyber Kim back on the track in the williamhill.com Christmas Hurdle at Kempton on Sunday.

Last seen winning the Aintree Hurdle at the Grand National meeting, the eight-year-old only tasted defeat once last season – in the Champion Hurdle behind Binocular at Cheltenham.

He will meet Nicky Henderson’s two-mile king here but Twiston-Davies said: “I’m really looking forward to seeing him back in action, he was a top performer last year and I can’t wait.

“The only race he got beaten in last season was the Champion so if Binocular is not at his best we must have a very good chance.

“People used to be able to say that he (Khyber Kim) was always at his best first time out, but last year he ran to form all the way through the season.

“He’s a very versatile horse. He’s got speed for tracks like Kempton and won over two and a half miles at Aintree.

“He won’t mind what the ground is like – as long as it’s on – but I can’t believe it will be.”

Donald McCain reports Overturn to be in fantastic shape ahead of his return to action.

The free-wheeling front-runner has had plenty of time to recover from his poor display in the Ebor but previously he had won the Northumberland Plate and the Galway Hurdle.

“He will be leading from the front and, in my opinion, could be hard to catch for the big guns,” the Cholmondeley trainer said in his blog on www.bangorondeeraces.co.uk.

“In a funny way, we do not know quite how good he is such was the improvement he showed last year and this will be our chance to find out.

“Jason (Maguire) was certainly impressed with him in a racecourse gallop last week.”

Binocular held every chance on his reappearance in the Fighting Fifth until tiring behind McCain’s Peddlers Cross.

A recent schooling session has left Henderson confident his stable star is beginning to fire.

Jumping was a concern for the JP McManus-owned gelding until he clicked at Cheltenham in the spring – but all appears to be going well on that front this season. “He’s very well. AP (McCoy) came and sat on him on last week and schooled him and as we’ve always said before, his schooling is the acid test of where he is,” said Henderson.

“You only need to jump four hurdles with him, and I saw a beaming face from AP when he was getting off.

“I think he enjoys schooling him more than any other horse because he is such a wonderful jumper when he’s on song and last year that was the part that wasn’t working, but it’s working now.

“I think the horse is a bit bigger and stronger. I wouldn’t blame fitness normally, but AP says what he wants is a really fast-run race, with a fair bit of stamina to come into it as well.”

williamhill.com Christmas Hurdle – sponsors bet: 2-1 Binocular, 7-2 Khyber Kim, Starluck, 7-1 Overturn, 8-1 Escort’men, 10-1 Oscar Whisky, 25-1 Sanctuaire, 40-1 Barizan, 150-1 Bocamix