My Tent Or Yours a false price for the Champion Hurdle

Reflecting upon Saturday's action, George Primarolo feels My Tent Or Yours may be a false price for the Champion Hurdle.

Where do you start after a day like today?

Having been used to going racing every weekend in a previous incarnation, it's really nice to be an armchair viewer these days as you don't miss a beat (assuming you're quick on the draw with a remote control).

You also have the luxury of choosing your own attire as well.

While I don't actually see the fuss of having to put on a pair of trousers rather than jeans if that's the policy of the racecourse, I do think recent events at a particular track could have been handled with a little more sensitivity.

But then again, I do have a lot of sympathy for the racecourse executive who has been hung out to dry over a relatively trivial matter.

If racegoers really want to get on their high horse about something, then admission prices would be a much better target at the moment. No entry was available for Newbury's Hennessy Day action for less than £30 on the door.

Anyway, I digress.

Triolo d'Alene's victory in the Hennessy Gold Cup is another feather in the cap of champion trainer Nicky Henderson who showed yet again why he is the man to follow in these big weekend races.

Although the six-year-old was sent off relatively unfancied at 20/1, he followed in the footsteps of stablemate Bobs Worth by landing the 3m2f event though jockey Barry Geraghty's response was fairly lukewarm when he was asked whether this horse could hit the same heights.

Geraghty is apparently keener for a crack at the Grand National, a race which Henderson has had a pretty poor record in over the years. Triolo d'Alene already has experience over the big fences having won the Topham last year but his trainer's record in the race is probably down to this fact more than anything else.

Just under an hour earlier, the champion trainer had saddled My Tent Or Yours to land the Fighting Fifth up at Newcastle and the manner of his victory saw him leap to the head of the market for next year's Champion Hurdle.

He certainly looked impressive. He cruised to the front two out in the style of a very good horse but he's still got plenty to prove and his price at the moment reflects his potential more than anything else.

While Cockney Sparrow and Grumeti are fair yardsticks, they would struggle to be placed in a Champion Hurdle and he's still got to prove himself conclusively in a battle. Yes, I'm sure there's more to come, but he's got plenty more to prove too.

If you've had a bad day and have lost a couple of quid, just click here and watch Celestial Halo's victory in the Long Distance Hurdle - it really isn't such a bad game after all.

What a star he is. Third in a Chester Vase, seventh in the St Leger, second in a Champion Hurdle, second in a World Hurdle and still doing the business with another Grade Two victory - though of course we'll gloss over his short-lived chasing campaign.

Big Buck's may have given owner Andy Stewart all the big-race victories he could possibly have wished for, but I doubt he'll ever own a horse like Celestial Halo again.

It was also great to see the one-eyed As I Am win the opener at Newbury for the mercurial Don Cantillon. Everyone I speak to always has nice things to say about him and it looks as if he's got a good one on his hands. She should make some chaser.

One performance that may have gone under the radar came at Bangor where Mendip Expressmade short work of his rivals in the Ginger McCain Memorial Novices' Chase and he's just the type of horse that the great man himself would have liked.

A prolific winner between the flags last year, Harry Fry's seven-year-old has translated that form to the regulation fences and followed up his impressive Wetherby victory with a bloodless success here. Keep your eye on him as I think he's potentially very useful.

The final word though goes to old Imperial Commander, who has bowed out following a fine effort in the Hennessy Gold Cup.

Not only did Nigel Twiston-Davies' gelding win the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2010 but he also had a Paddy Power Gold Cup and a Ryanair Chase to his name in a five year love affair with Cheltenham racecourse, having also won a bumper there in 2006.