Cornerstone Lad will require a career-best effort at Cheltenham Festival

MICKY HAMMOND is under no illusion about the scale of the task facing Cornerstone Lad – Yorkshire’s challenger in the Unibet Champion Hurdle on day one of the Cheltenham Festival.
Cornerstone Lad (near side) came to prominence when winning the Fighting Fifth Hurdle under Henry Brooke from Buveur D'Air.Cornerstone Lad (near side) came to prominence when winning the Fighting Fifth Hurdle under Henry Brooke from Buveur D'Air.
Cornerstone Lad (near side) came to prominence when winning the Fighting Fifth Hurdle under Henry Brooke from Buveur D'Air.

The trainer knows that Mary Lofthouse’s horse of a lifetime – already the winner of the Grade One Fighting Fifth Hurdle – will have to put up another career-best performance to feature in the first three.

He’s always maintained that the horse – the mount of North Yorkshire jockey Henry Brooke – will be a better steeplechaser when switching to larger obstacles next season.

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But a wide-open field of 17 runners – the biggest since 2009 when Punjabi saw off 22 rivals – points to the absence of a standout contender for the National Hunt Festival’s opening day highlight.

Horses on the gallops at Cheltenham ahead of the National Hunt Festival.Horses on the gallops at Cheltenham ahead of the National Hunt Festival.
Horses on the gallops at Cheltenham ahead of the National Hunt Festival.

And if Cheltenham is hit by another downpour – more rain was forecast last night – Hammond hopes that this will bring out the best in Cornerstone Lad who is just six years of age.

Heavy ground enabled him to make all in the Fighting Fifth at Newcastle last November’s – Brooke’s improvisation in the saddle, stealing a march on the field at the start, catching out, amongst others, former Champion Hurdle winner Buveur D’Air and Phil Kirby’s Lady Buttons who lines up in today’s Mares’ Hurdle.

Despite carrying a penalty for this Grade One win, he was only narrowly denied by the Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained Ballandy and Nicky Henderson’s Pentland Hills, who both reoppose today, in Haydock’s Champion Hurdle trial – another race run on bottomless ground.

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“He’s got to go in the Champion Hurdle, he’s got to,” pleaded Brooke in the immediate aftermath of a third place finish behind two horses which hold strong claims today in no small part because of the high-profile reputations of their trainers.

Cornerstone Lad's trainer Micky Hammond.Cornerstone Lad's trainer Micky Hammond.
Cornerstone Lad's trainer Micky Hammond.

And while Hammond, who trains at Middleham and recorded his 1,000th winner earlier this season, is about the only person in Britain praying for more rain after a relentlessly wet winter, he is justifabily proud that the team at his stables have a worthy representative in such a tough race.

“It’s marvellous – and we are all looking forward to it,” said Hammond who first made his name as a jump jockey before switching to the training ranks and recording his first Grade One win when Cornerstone Lad held off Bueveur D’Air in a photo-finish at Newcastle.

“I think, at the price (28-1), we have a really good each-way chance.

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“We’ve been positive with the horse all season and we will be looking to be positive again. I am sure he will run well.

“It’s marvellous for Mrs Lofthouse and Henry (Brooke) gets on very well with the horse. He’s also from Middleham – let’s hope we can fly the flag for the North.”

Hammond says Cornerstone lad’s preparations have been “very good” and that “everything has gone really well” since Haydock in the question to become the first Yorkshire-trained winner of the Champion Hurdle since Peter Easterby’s Sea Pigeon recorded a second success in 1981.

He took the horse to Catterick for a gallop after racing last Wednesday. “It was a little bit of an away day to take him away from his box and break things up,” said Hammond who went on to explain how the hurdler’s action is particularly proficient on heavy ground.

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“The more rain the better. He copes with it better than most and has the right sort of action for it. He needs to improve again on what he’s done so far this season but he is open to improvement and the Haydock run gives us a shout off level weights.”

“The form from his Haydock run last time could produce at least a horse to finish in the first four. We’ve been lucky in that he needs cut in the ground and we’ve had one of the wettest Februarys on record.

The field is headed by Epatante who is one of four runners for the aforementioned Henderson who is bidding to win the Champion Hurdle for a record eighth time.

The winner of Kempton’s Christmas Hurdle, she runs in the colours of legendary owner JP McManus who has eight wins to date – his first being the legendary Istabraq in 1998.

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But the horse disappointed at Cheltenham last year and has been subject of a coughing scare which, in many respects, has been indicative of the 2019-20 hurdling campaign as a whole.

“At the moment I’ve no worries,” said Henderson who confirmed Pentland Hills, winner of last year’s Triumph Hurdle, will be ridden more conservatively after undergoing a wind operation following his second-place finish at Haydock ahead of Cornerstone Lad.

Meanwhile Irish trainer Gavin Cromwell – victorious 12 months ago with the McManus-owned Espoir D’Allen who subsequently suffered a fatal injury on the gallops – has high hopes for the progressive Darver Star who was second in the Irish Champion Hurdle.

A high-profile ride for Jonathan Moore, one of the rising stars of Ireland’s weighing room, Cromwell said: “He is the same sort of price as Espoir D’Allen was last year. He stays, travels and jumps well. I think he will be staying on up the hill strongly.”

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