McCoy hoping for big Baracouda run
Tony McCoy is eager to strike up a winning partnership with Baracouda in the Ballymore Properties Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury on Saturday.
Trainer Francois Doumen’s son Thierry has partnered the nine-year-old in all his races so far, but following his retirement during the summer, the ride on Baracouda became available.
McCoy has struck up a fruitful association with Baracouda’s owner JP McManus this season, bringing him in line for the ride on a horse that has lost just five times in his career.
“Every jockey would like to ride Baracouda, I certainly would,” McCoy told Racing UK.
“He is a fantastic horse. With Thierry Doumen retiring, it was available for me to ride him. I am very lucky Mr McManus has let me ride him and if I can do as well as Thierry did, then I will be happy.
“I have never sat on him, but it is normally a lot easier to ride the good ones than the bad ones. He is obviously a bit older now, but I should think he retains plenty of ability.”
Baracouda has only been beaten twice in 14 visits to Britain and is a dual winner of the Stayers Hurdle but he suffered a rare reversal when just denied by Iris’s Gift in last season’s renewal of the race.
He has not raced since that day, but McCoy believes he will be fit enough for the extended three-mile event.
He added: “His trainer knows more about training than most of us, if he is very happy with him, then I am happy with him, and when Francois Doumen sends them for a race, they are fairly spot-on.”
Alan King believes Crystal D’Ainay will have it all to do when he takes Baracouda on again on Saturday.
The five-year-old finished a distant third in last season’s Stayers’ Hurdle but he comes into this race with the benefit of a run having made his seasonal bow in the John Smith’s Hurdle at Wetherby at the end of last month.
He looked set to win before being caught on the run-in by Telemoss, who could also re-oppose at the weekend, but King believes he will have improved for that outing.
“He is in very good form, he did his last bit of work this morning,” King told At The Races.
“I hope he has come on from Wetherby, I think he has. Most of mine have, they were not quite right at that stage of the season.
“It is very difficult to take on Baracouda but we have got no other options but I am looking forward to running him and it will be a good race.
“Baracouda cannot go on forever, but he is only nine and has never been overly raced. I’ve got the utmost respect for him, he is a hell of a horse. I hope I can beat him, mind you.”
Telemoss was receiving 8lb when beating Crystal D’Ainay by a length and a half at Wetherby but with few options for high-class staying hurdlers, Nicky Richards feels he has to send the 10-year-old to the Berkshire track.
“He has to go for Saturday’s race. It’s a very limited programme for a three-mile staying horse with a rating like he’s got so we’ll go and have a go,” Richards told Racing UK.
“I think that Alan is sounding like he wants to run Crystal D’Ainay. No doubt he will have improved a bit from Wetherby so the old lad will have to be on his toes.”
