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Paul Nicholls: A word of warning before Aintree

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They'll be among the hottest of favourites on Thursday at Aintree but it has not been plain sailing for Big Buck's and Zarkandar this week

A word of warning for Betfair punters tomorrow - in fact, three.

The first is that you can't always trust Cheltenham form at Aintree. Admittedly, three horses won at both Festivals last year - Big Buck's, Peddlers Cross and Albertas Run - but you simply never know for sure what running at Cheltenham, the most competitive of racing environments, has taken out of your horse.

Different track, different ground, different day often leads to different results, with the form not standing up.

In addition, you never know what has happened to the horses in between.

And I can reveal here that I have had a couple of minor scares with Big Buck's and Zarkandar this week.

Big Buck's always tends to give me a scare before big races, which is very nice of him. He worked moderately on the Saturday before Cheltenham before coming out and winning his third World Hurdle.

And on Monday and Tuesday he went off his grub, so on Tuesday we gave him a blood test.

Thankfully, it came back fine and he ate up this morning, so we are back on track.

I don't know what we would have done had the test come back inconclusive, but luckily it didn't. I could have done without 48 hours of worry, though.

And that is before the problem we have had with Zarkandar.

He has had a bad abscess in his mouth and we have been constantly bathing it. He hasn't missed any work but of course it has been very sore, though he is a tough buggar.

But thank god it burst yesterday morning, so touch wood it will have done his chances no harm at all tomorrow.

To win big races at the major Festivals, you can do without even the slightest of setbacks and problems.

To put it into context though, I must stress that both horses have continued to work well throughout the minor scares, and are fine.

But I thought it best to let everyone know before their races tomorrow.



Paul Nicholls / 6 Apr 2011

Paul Nicholls: A word of warning before Aintree

Latest News RSS / / 06 April 2011 / 2

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Zarkandar suffered with an abscess this week

Zarkandar suffered with an abscess this week

"On Monday and Tuesday Big Buck's went off his grub, so on Tuesday we gave him a blood test. Thankfully, it came back fine and he ate up this morning, so we are back on track."

They'll be among the hottest of favourites on Thursday at Aintree but it has not been plain sailing for Big Buck's and Zarkandar this week

A word of warning for Betfair punters tomorrow - in fact, three.

The first is that you can't always trust Cheltenham form at Aintree. Admittedly, three horses won at both Festivals last year - Big Buck's, Peddlers Cross and Albertas Run - but you simply never know for sure what running at Cheltenham, the most competitive of racing environments, has taken out of your horse.

Different track, different ground, different day often leads to different results, with the form not standing up.

In addition, you never know what has happened to the horses in between.

And I can reveal here that I have had a couple of minor scares with Big Buck's and Zarkandar this week.

Big Buck's always tends to give me a scare before big races, which is very nice of him. He worked moderately on the Saturday before Cheltenham before coming out and winning his third World Hurdle.

And on Monday and Tuesday he went off his grub, so on Tuesday we gave him a blood test.

Thankfully, it came back fine and he ate up this morning, so we are back on track.

I don't know what we would have done had the test come back inconclusive, but luckily it didn't. I could have done without 48 hours of worry, though.

And that is before the problem we have had with Zarkandar.

He has had a bad abscess in his mouth and we have been constantly bathing it. He hasn't missed any work but of course it has been very sore, though he is a tough buggar.

But thank god it burst yesterday morning, so touch wood it will have done his chances no harm at all tomorrow.

To win big races at the major Festivals, you can do without even the slightest of setbacks and problems.

To put it into context though, I must stress that both horses have continued to work well throughout the minor scares, and are fine.

But I thought it best to let everyone know before their races tomorrow.



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(2)

  1. lewi38 | 08 April 2011

    great warning about 2 horses that win well then say denman is in great form i wont believe a word u say no more

  2. paul | 09 April 2011

    dont cry lewi. hes trying to help, he doesnt know when horses will and wont win. cop on