Baracouda to star at Ascot

French ace Baracouda could be the star of the show at Ascot’s Christmas meeting next week.

The dual Stayers’ Hurdle winner bids for a third win in the £70,000 (€99,995) Cantor Sport Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot next Friday.

Francois Doumen’s star took the three-mile prize in 2000 and 2001, but he was beaten a length by Deano’s Beeno 12 months ago.

He gained his revenge over Martin Pipe’s charge with a smooth victory at Newbury on his seasonal reappearance last month.

But Deano’s Beeno is likely to be given the chance to try and make all the running again and upset the French raider.

Saturday’s card features the £100,000 (€142,850) Ladbroke Hurdle. This Showcase Handicap looks a tough race to win and the sponsors are having trouble in finding a market leader. They had three co-favourites – Overstrand, Sporazene, Tom Paddington – at 6-1 in their opening show.

The Henry Daly-trained Behrajan may attempt to repeat his victory in the big handicap chase on the card, the £50,000 (€71,424) cantorsport.co.uk Silver Cup, over an extended three miles.

After next Saturday, racing in Britain starts to slow down for the Christmas break before returning with a bang on Boxing Day.

The BBC will be covering three races live from Ascot on both days while Channel 4 cameras will be at Newcastle next Saturday for four races as well as showing three from Warwick.