Six try to stop Big Buck’s run

Owner Andy Stewart reports the top-class stayer to be in good shape for his first run of the season as he tries to win the Long Distance Hurdle for the third successive year.

“We haven’t got him completely wound up at this time of the season but he’s in exactly the same fine fettle as this time last year,” said Stewart.

Duc De Regniere, who was second behind the Paul Nicholls-trained triple Ladbrokes World Hurdle victor last year, could take him on again. The nine-year-old won this race in 2008 and was third to Big Buck’s in 2009. He will be having his first run since joining rookie trainer Tom Symonds from Nicky Henderson’s stable.

Nicholls has also put in Five Dream while Keiran Burke is looking to take on Big Buck’s with smart mare Sparky May.

Pettifour, who was third in 2008, has been given an entry by his trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies after finishing second to Dorset Square in a handicap hurdle at Cheltenham on his first start for 20 months. The list of possibles, after the Grade Two race was re-opened is completed by Cerium and Indian Pipe Dream.

Stewart has a big day ahead of him on Saturday with Celestial Halodue to take on Binocular in the Stanjames.com Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle.

Celestial Halo has 5lb to find with the 2010 Champion Hurdle winner on official ratings, but the Paul Nicholls-trained seven-year-old is primed after claiming the Elite Hurdle at Wincanton earlier this month. The Nicky Henderson-trained Binocular has not raced since finishing third to Hurricane Fly at Punchestown in early May.

Stewart is hoping Donald McCain asks the trailblazing Overturn to run again following his win at Ascot on Saturday. “If Overturn does reappear again quickly after Ascot then it will suit us on the basis it will set it up for us, rather than us doing the donkey work,” said Stewart.

“On the official handicap, Binocular is 5lb better than us in a Grade One, so that’s the reason he’s odds-on and we’re 7-2. We did have to battle a bit at Wincanton, but he’s a battling horse – that one run might make up some of those 5lb.”

Today Richard Fahey has found a good opportunity for Mull Of Killough in the Bet In Play At ladbrokes.com Handicap at Lingfield. Third in the 2010 Lincoln off 96, the five-year-old was highly tried during the remainder of that campaign. Having missed most of this year, he returned in September and put what was a below-par effort behind him next time up in a big-field handicap at Newmarket, running a cracker in fifth.

Last time out here, he was a fine second behind Riggins on his first try on the Polytrack. Up a couple of pounds for that but still 2lb below his Lincoln effort, he acts on this kind of surface and is relatively fresh.

Riggins goes for a repeat win in the Worthingtons Hyde Stakes at Kempton and has to be followed. Twelve months ago he dead-heated with Marco Botti’s Fanunalter, who has definitely upheld the form since. Four tries on the all-weather in Britain have seen him unbeaten and that Lingfield win will have set him up nicely. Clinical and Edinburgh Knight rate the biggest dangers.