General / Simon Rowlands / 31 October 2007 / Leave a comment Free £25 Bet

Acclaimed racing journalist Simon Rowlands reflects on the past week's performances at tracks from the US to the UK

That was the weekend that was. In the space of a couple of days we had enough triumphs and disasters to fill a normal month and maybe more besides.

First, the downside. Whatever you made of "Gorgeous" George Washington - and I was never quite a part of the horse's fan club - you had to admit that life was never dull when he was around.

From the first time this mercurial character set foot on a racecourse to the last - at Monmouth Park on Saturday night, when he sustained a fatal injury in the Breeders' Cup Classic - he divided opinion on his merit and his character.

He even managed an abortive spell at stud. George just wasn't that keen on the girls it seemed, and it was also questionable whether he was all that keen on racing, though he got another chance to put things straight in that respect.

But, at his best, as when winning the 2000 Guineas and the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, he was a class act: Timeform rated him 133 at the end of 2006, making him one of the best European milers of the modern era.

Dylan Thomas is currently rated 132 by the same ratings service, and the Breeders' Cup Turf looked his for the taking on Saturday night. Or, rather, it did until monsoon-like conditions hit New Jersey.

It was a myth that Dylan Thomas "needed to hear his hooves rattle", as his win in an Arc and second in an International Stakes on borderline good/good-to-soft going showed. But genuinely soft ground seemed to be another matter entirely, and he trailed in a miserable fifth.

The 2007 Breeders' Cup was not a good day at the office for the Europeans all round - second was the closest they got - and it's an awful long way to go to draw a blank.

If the Americans are serious about calling the fixture "The World Thoroughbred Championships" then they should be prepared for it to be staged outside their back yard occasionally. I'd like to see a double-header of turf races at Ascot and polytrack races at Kempton.

Yes, Kempton.

Heavens, they even allowed an NFL fixture - something that is more American than cherry pie - to be played at Wembley later on at the weekend, so anything's possible.

The day after the Breeders' Cup, in conditions that were ironically much more fitting for a major Flat meeting than those on the other side of the Atlantic, the jumps season "proper" got under way at Aintree.

We might well have seen the winner of the next year's Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle, as, in their different ways, I was impressed by both Kauto Star and Katchit.

Kauto Star was defeated in the Old Roan Chase, but by only a length and a half while conceding a stone to the high-class Monet's Garden on that one's patch. He did not go with his customary zest, but I thought that was excusable for a horse making its reappearance in a race run at a competitive pace.

Kauto Star knuckled down when it mattered and, in running off a mark of 179, put up another exceptional performance if the winner was at or near his best. The sharp minds on Betfair are prepared to offer no bigger than 3.7 for a repeat Gold Cup win in March, and I, for one, am not in a hurry to join them.

Katchit won off a somewhat less stratospheric mark of 159 half an hour earlier, showing all his renowned battling qualities as well as a good deal of class. One of the big things in his favour is that, unlike with the chasers, the "old guard" in the hurdling firmament look there for the taking.

You will, doubtless, read all sorts of nonsense about five-year-olds being jinxed in the Champion Hurdle in the months ahead: See You Then was the last winner from that age group, in 1985, and plenty have tried.

There are five-year-olds and there are five-year-olds, however. Katchit will not be just "any" five-year-old come next spring. He has won a Triumph Hurdle by nine lengths in a very good time, he has followed up at Aintree in similarly good style, and he has now turned in an effort this season that puts him theoretically only a few pounds behind the best.

As much to the point, he is sound and uncomplicated - something that cannot be said of all his older rivals - and he already has all the experience he might need for the tasks ahead.

Katchit can be backed at 6.4 on Betfair's ante-post Champion Hurdle market, and back him is exactly what I intend to do.

What do you think? If you have any views on the remarks made above or in previous Rowley Files then why not post them below?For

Tags: Champion Hurdle Betting, Katchit