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Cheltenham Long-Shots: Cape Tribulation - World Hurdle - Thursday March 18
/ Will Hayler / 03 March 2010 / Leave a comment Free £25 Bet
Genial Yorkshireman Malcolm Jefferson is just the sort of trainer who can produce a big-priced Cheltenham winner and Will Hayler thinks he may have one in the World Hurdle
Favourite-backers won't be winning Big Buck's (boom boom) even if they are proved correct in this year's Ladbrokes World Hurdle, but in the event of the market leader finding a way to get beaten (and God knows that apparent good things have found plenty of different routes to defeat at the Festival over the years) Cape Tribulation looks a big price to give Malcolm Jefferson a third Cheltenham Festival winner.
Jefferson, an easy-to-like Yorkshireman who tasted success at the meeting with Tindari (Pertemps Final) and Dato Star (Bumper) in the 1990s, is not usually one to get too involved with hyping up his team. But he was hailing Cape Tribulation as a future star prospect before the good-looking son of Hernando had even seen a hurdle in public, and there was certainly much to like about the way he strolled to an imperious success in Grade Two company at Doncaster on just his second start as a jumper.
Sent off second-favourite for the Albert Bartlett on the strength of that form, he held every chance turning for home before fading into fifth, a performance that might have led to doubts over the horse's ability to come up the hill.
However he smashed that theory to pieces when being the only one able to make an on-song Zaynar have to work for his victory in the Relkeel Hurdle back at the same track in the autumn and went on to post two commendable performances over a wholly inadequate two miles in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton and then behind Medermit and Punjabi at Haydock last month, on each occasion travelling strongly before being outspeeded close home.
Given the best part of two months off since that run, he goes to Cheltenham a fresh horse and carrying confidence from his trainer ("I'm not saying he'll win, but I think he's a better horse than last year and he'll run well").
He can be backed at [80.0] for the win or at [42.0] in the market without Big Buck's.
