Buveur D’Air Heads Three Interesting Runners at Newcastle for Nicky Henderson

After being the target for Buveur D’Air for a while now, we are finally ready for the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle tomorrow. As well as sending his superstar hurdler up north, Nicky Henderson has also decided to send two new recruits with him. Just like the Champion Hurdler winner, the other two horses are both owned by JP McManus, and both are making their debuts for Henderson tomorrow.

The first runner is in the first race of the day, and that is a juvenile hurdler named Style De Vole. He has ran just once in his career so far, and that was when he was trained in France. He won a flat race by five lengths although that race in the summer in France is massively different from a juvenile hurdle at Newcastle in the depths of winter.

There is no saying how the form looks from France, how the horse will jump or what kind of horse he is going to develop into. However, he could be anything and that makes him a very interesting contender in the first race, and one that is certainly worth watching on his UK debut.

Buveur D’Air will be the meat in the sandwich between these two newcomers and he goes in the Fighting Fifth at 2:05. This is not his main aim, he takes a lot of getting ready and anyone backing him at short prices should remember that. This is certainly the toughet race he has had for the past couple of seasons outside of his Champion Hurdle victories, the opposition is strong here.

Rounding off the day for Henderson is another new recruit named Champagne Platinum in the 2:40 maiden hurdle. This horse arrives from the point-to-point scene, and won his only race in April by six lengths. Just two horses finished that day, so the form is almost impossibe to get a grip on here, but JP McManus paid 250,000 euros for him from the sales, so he must have shown signs of being a decent animal.

His point-to-point was over three miles and this is a race over two miles, so there is reason to think that he will be better over further and better as a chaser after having experience over fences already. Despite that, he is an incredibly interesting animal, and again, he really could be anything for Henderson over the next couple of years.

The three of these horses may not look like betting proppositions tomorrow, but they are three to note on what is an excting day of racing up at Newcastle. We all know what Buveur D’Air has in the locker, and what we will see later on in the season from him, however the other two could also be smart horses in the future. JP McManus owns all three and he will no doubt be keeping an eye on them tomorrow, hoping his current champion can show he is still king, while hoping that his two new recruits could turn into champions themselves.