Bleu Adds Another String to Nicholls’ Triumph Hurdle Bow
20/01/11

Paul Nicholls didn’t enjoy the happiest of weeks last week but the victory on Wednesday of his French import Cedre Bleu will surely have brought a smile back to the face of the champion trainer, writes Elliot Slater.

Running in the t ownership of two of National Hunt racing’s most influential owners, Paul Barber and David Johnson, Cedre Bleu had raced three times in his native , never winning, but running well to be third in a Listed hurdle at Auteuil in September. A big, imposing animal, he was sent off 10/3 second favourite for the four-runner Berkshire Stand Bookshop Juvenile Hurdle, with all the irish racing tips market action focusing around the Nicky Henderson-trained 1/2 favourite Titan de Sarti.

Although Titan de Sarti probably ran his race under Barry Geraghty, it was clear from a long way out that Sam Thomas was going considerably better on Nicholls’ charge who after easing to the front at the third last stayed-on powerfully to eventually score cosily by 10 lengths. Despite Nicholls commenting immediately after the race that Cedre Bleu isn’t obviously the right type for the Cheltenham Festival (he already has t-favourite Sam Winner in the race), bookmakers reacted by introducing the Newbury winner into the ante-post market for the JCB Triumph Hurdle at odds of around 20/1. There’s no doubt that Bet365 were impressed with what they saw as they were only prepared to offer a miserly 12/1 with racing tips for today.

Nicholls’ concerns about running the Le Fou gelding in the four-year-old’s championship are primarily based around the massive frame of Cedre Bleu. He dwarfed his rivals at Newbury and is almost certainly a horse who was born to go chasing. Whether he will be fully effective on the undulating Prestbury circuit is open to doubt, but wherever he goes he appears to have a tremendous future ahead of him.