WE MIGHT NEVER KNOW HOW GOOD BUVEUR D'AIR IS.

​I’ll admit it, last Saturday was first time Buveur D’Air has impressed me. The bubble of invincibility attributed to him by Irish race fans desperate for ‘a second coming’ to finally produce the new Arkle of their dreams, which over fences he might yet prove to be, may have burst but I am prepared to believe that Samcro is the best, if not the only truly top-class horse, Buveur D’Air has yet to humble.
I suspect come March, when race-hardened and with a stronger gallop set by a Gigginstown pacemaker or two, both Samcro and Summerville Boy will finish closer to the reigning champion hurdler, though it would take a supreme optimist to think either will take the crown from Buveur D’Air. In fact I would go as far as to suggest that the only horse in Britain and Ireland that could take Buveur D’Air’s scalp is Apple’s Jade.
Gordon Elliott is perhaps being professional to the point of boring when he says he believes in running a horse in the race it is most likely to win, and on all known form Apple’s Jade is a proven banker for the mare’s hurdle at the Festival. But what would winning a race she is a near certainty prove? By how much would it swell the bank accounts of Michael O’Leary? Not enough to make a difference to his day-to-day life, I would suggest. Gigginstown is a sporting operation; winning the Champion Hurdle, though not a prime target for an owner for whom steeplechasing is the be-all and end-all, has tickled their fancy enough to re-route Samcro from his destiny. Surely it is worth investigating if Apple’s Jade can be as effective at 2-miles as she is over further.
Whether his supporters will admit or not, Buveur D’Air has won two lacklustre renewals of the Champion Hurdle. Three crowns, though noble, rare and admirable, will only denote quantity. I would argue four such Champion Hurdle crowns would not place him in the same league as Night Nurse, Monksfield, Sea Pigeon, Bula, Comedy of Errors and others. It is true, Buveur D’Air can only beat what turns up on the day. It would be beneficial for the historical record if in the years ahead no one posed the question ‘Now, if that Gordon Elliott had possessed the balls to take on Buveur D’Air with Apple’s Jade, wouldn’t she have put it up to him?’
 
It is not in me to feel pity for bookmakers but on Saturday, on only the second running under their banner, I felt sorry for Ladbrokes for the overall quality of the runners in their big race of the year. Though, as any scroll through past Hennesseys will prove, there were sub-standard renewals of the race that now bears the Ladbroke name and logo, as when Ever Blessed won or Cogent, the race could bounce back as there were not so many rival races around to take the glint from the gingerbread. Although it is a race that has already in its comparatively short life-span provided life-enhancing memories, especially with Kauto Star, the distance of a week between the Betfair and the Newbury show-piece, with the added incentive or blackmail of the £1-million challenge, might yet reduce the once holy Hennessey to the ordinariness of the race that used to be the Whitbread Gold Cup.
As I have proposed in the past, the £1-million challenge should begin not with the Betfair but with the Ladbroke Trophy. We need the Newbury steeplechase to remain as the biggest handicap prize outside of the Grand National. It needs to be protected. Not by a vast increase in prize money but by the powers-that-be showing it the respect it deserves. The Betfair will always be the domain of the Gold Cup horses but by including the Ladbroke Trophy in the £1-million challenge Colin Tizzard, for instance, might have run Native River in one and Thistlecrack in the other. Perhaps like the £1-million challenge for stayers on the flat it might be considered that horses could qualify for the prize by winning the King George and the Gold Cup plus either the Betfair or the Ladbroke Trophy. Certainly, there needs to be longer than a week between the two races.
Sizing Tennessee was a good winner of the race, and a greatly deserved big-race success for the ever-likeable Tom Scudamore, but he won by too big a distance to suggest it was anything other than a substandard race this year and we should never have to place such a judgement on the second most iconic staying handicap chase in the calendar.