The Cheltenham Festival 
/ Phil Turner / 30 January 2012 / Leave a Comment 
Big Buck's vs Hurricane Fly would be a match to savour.
"As the ratings imply, Big Buck's would just get our vote, particularly as he looked every bit as good as ever when stretching his unbeaten record to fifteen..."
Racing For Change's main aim is to "broaden the appeal of the sport". The scheme's decision-makers could do a lot worse than put the feelers out to stage a match between the two outstanding hurdlers of the moment, argues Timeform jumps handicapper Phil Turner...
Both Hurricane Fly (Timeform rating h174) and Big Buck's (h176+) enhanced their reputations with imperious displays this weekend and, should they retain their respective Champion Hurdle and World Hurdle crowns as expected at the Cheltenham Festival in March, a mouth-watering clash between the pair would surely be what most racing fans would wish for before the season is out.
Indeed, history is littered with examples of how you cannot beat a good head-to-head to broaden interest in a sport. For example, worldwide news bulletins were dominated by chess (yes CHESS!) during the summer of 1972 as the much-anticipated world championship match between maverick young American Bobby Fischer and reigning champion Boris Spassky took place, with the former striking a blow for the Western World at the height of the Cold War as he wrested the title away from the Soviet Union for the first time in twenty-five years.
Some twelve months later, the American public were gripped by another high-profile sports talking point when retired tennis pro Bobby Riggs challenged the two leading female players of the day, Margaret Court and Billie-Jean King, to a "Battle of The Sexes" contest in a chauvinistic attempt to expose the weakness of the women's game. Fifty-five-year-old Riggs defeated Court 6-2 6-1, but then lost to King 4-6 3-6 3-6 in a match which was televised live nationally.
A closer example to any proposed Hurricane Fly-Big Buck's match came in 1997 when the reigning 100m and 200m Olympic champions, Donovan Bailey and Michael Johnson, met in a specially staged 150m race (75m curve and 75m straight) to decide who was the "World's Fastest Man". Unfortunately the race proved to be something of a damp squib, with Johnson pulling up "injured" once clearly held by Bailey.
A similar scenario befell "The Great International Race" at Belmont Park in 1923 between Zev and Papyrus, winners of that year's Kentucky Derby and Epsom Derby respectively, which proved a disappointingly one-sided affair due to the British raider failing to handle the unfamiliar dirt underfoot conditions.
Matches in horse-racing can work, however. An estimated forty million radio listeners tuned in to hear commentary of the "Match of The Century" between Seabiscuit and War Admiral at Pimlico in 1938, the events of which proved the centrepiece of a best-selling book and hit movie early in the 21st Century. Meanwhile, there was also huge interest in National Hunt's finest match to date, which came at the Punchestown Festival in 1986 when Irish racing authorities stumped up the bulk of a sizeable pot to attract a clash between that year's Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Dawn Run and Queen Mother Champion Chase winner Buck House.
Dawn Run won that particular "Battle of The Sexes" despite eschewing her usual mares' allowance to race at level weights and also dropping down to two miles. No such gimmicks would be required for any Hurricane Fly-Big Buck's clash, with the intermediate trip of two-and-a-half miles surely a fair compromise for both. So who would win?
As the ratings imply, Big Buck's would just get our vote, particularly as he looked every bit as good as ever when stretching his unbeaten record to fifteen with a seven-length defeat of Dynaste (h160) at Cheltenham on Saturday. If anything, though, Hurricane Fly was even more impressive when making light of rain-drenched conditions to beat Oscars Well (h164) by a cosy six-and-a-half lengths in the Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown twenty-four hours later, his performance all the more meritorious given it came after months of rumours and speculation as to his well-being. Perhaps the most pertinent question should any such match materialise is which of the pair would their regular pilot Ruby Walsh choose?
Unfortunately, one clash which won't be taking place (at Cheltenham at least) in the near future is that of Flemenstar (c153p) against the leading British-trained two-mile chasers Al Ferof (c161), Sprinter Sacre (154p), Cue Card (c154) and Peddlers Cross (c150p).
Flemenstar simply hasn't looked back since finishing runner-up to Bog Warrior (c154) on his chasing debut back in the autumn and confirmed himself a top-class prospect with a runaway win in the Irish Arkle at Leopardstown on Sunday, but he'll reportedly be kept to Irish soil for the time being due to concerns about him being a bad traveller.
There are no such fears with regards to Boston Bob (h154p), who'll take plenty of beating in either the Neptune Novices' Hurdle or the Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham - indeed, Fingal Bay (h156p) is the only novice so far in 2011/12 to have bettered the form Boston Bob showed when winning a Grade 2 at Leopardstown on Sunday. He certainly makes more appeal at this stage than Batonnier (h135p), who showed a likeable attitude to win another Grade 2 novice hurdle at Cheltenham's Trials Day, yet will need to improve if he's to have place claims at the Festival.
Meanwhile, almost identical comments apply to Saturday's big race winner Midnight Chase (c162), who bounced back to his best to record a fifth Cheltenham success in the Argento Chase, but his two-and-a-quarter length defeat of the quirky Tidal Bay (c160$) is unlikely to have connections of Long Run (c182) or Kauto Star (c181) losing any sleep.
The Alan King-trained Montbazon got back to winning ways at Plumpton on Monday......
Diamond Harry will be checked out for a possible breathing problem after his run at Cheltenham on Saturday......
Henrietta Knight is leaving a decision on Somersby's Cheltenham target until as late as possible because of the unpredictability of the British weather......
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