Unanswered queries over Istabraq victory

Istabraq duly made it 23 wins from 28 career starts over hurdles and 10 from 13 at Leopardstown when making a winning reappearance in the Christmas Hurdle last weekend in Ireland but the manner of his win left more questions than answers.

Of course he could do no more than win and jockey Charlie Swan gave him a confident ride but he only beat a 20-1 outsider by a head and this after his biggest rival had fallen!

On the face of this run he is going to have to improve to win a record-breaking Fourth Champion hurdle at Cheltenham in March and at 10 years of age that is not going to be an easy thing to do, but if anyone can, Aiden O'Brien can and that is why he intends by passing the AIG Hurdle at Leopardstown later this month - a race Istabraq has won for the past four years - and send him straight to Cheltenham.

He is working on the opinion that as the horse is not getting any younger it might be wise to train him for the one day and have him "spot on" for the big occasion rather than try and win another race on the way.

Whether this works or not remains to be seen, but as Aiden O'Brien is the most gifted trainer of a race horse in the world then I would suggest it is a sensible idea to go along with that.

However if he does get beaten at Cheltenhham in March, I don't want to hear any excuses like French trainer Francois Doumen was banding about after his hot favourite First Gold had finished only fourth in the King George at Kempton over Christmas.

Before the race he told me he was spot on, but after the race he said he had wished he had given the horse another race to get him to peak fitness - you can't have it both ways Francois!

Getting back to Istabraq, he looked fit but a little on the burly side in the paddock before the race and when he stood back at the third last it put our hearts in our mouths remembering the two crashing falls Istabraq has suffered in two of his last three races.

Having said all that, he won and is red hot favourite to retain his hurdling crown at Cheltenham in March but no horse has ever won four Champion Hurdles and his rivals now know only too well that he is there to be shot at and they will be lining up to take him on as he attempts racing history.

Since Christmas the big freeze has set in here in the UK with temperatures dropping to minus nine degrees. Not surprisingly there is no action on the turf and even the 'all weather' meeting at Wolverhampton earlier this week had to be called off.

Keiren Fallon braved the cold to ride his first winner of the year at Southwell on New Year's Day and when asked about a horse to follow this year promptly announced HM the Queen's Right Approach.

Right Approach, a colt by Machiavellian, won first time out at Newmarket in August before finishing second in another seven furlong race at Kempton in September. Trained by Sir Michael Stoute he must have given Keiren a serious feel because he reckons this colt could win the Derby!

Frankie Dettori who was one of the guests at the big New Year's Eve Ball here in Newmarket made a very eloquent and moving speech about just why Direct Aid for Africa - the night's charity - was such a worthy charity and pointed out that in a country like Zambia where there are 10,000,000 people over 2,000,000 of them are orphans!