Zarkandar throws his hat into the Triumph Hurdle ring
After a fairly quiet spell by his incredibly high standards, the Paul Nicholls bandwagon has started rolling again in good time to have his horses in peak for the forthcoming Cheltenham Festival, writes Elliot Slater.
The Ditcheat handler sprang a minor surprise at Kempton on Saturday when his Zarkandar overturned some highly touted rivals to impressively land the Grade 2 Adonis Hurdle and put himself in the spotlight for a bid for the JCB Triumph Hurdle. The victory certainly pleased Nicholls, who had been of the opinion that the ex-French gelding would probably need the run having been off thetrack since winning at Deauville in August of last year.
Given a fine ride by Daryl Jacob, the four-year-old was settled towards the rear of the field in the two-mile contest before being asked to close on the leading trio turning for home. The response was fairly immediate as Zarkandar scooted into thelead at the second last then ran on well after being challenged by Molotov at the final flight to record a two-and-a-quarter length win, at odds of 8/1.
With the runner-up held in high regard by Nicky Henderson and the time of the race being more than respectable on a day when horses finished far more tired throughout the day than would normally be the case on genuinely ‘good to soft’ ground, the form looks solid and bookmakers reacted by slashing the Triumph Hurdle odds of the Azamour gelding to a general price of 10/1.
Nicholls reports his new Triumph Hurdle hope to have come out of the race in fine shape and he is now an intended runner along with stable companion Brampour (16/1), whilst a decision on the participation of Nicholls’ other entry Sam Winner (10/1) has yet to be made.
