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The Grade Two hurdle is one of the highlights of the track’s Festival Trials Day card but may be even more enticing to potential runners with the news that the horse who has become their collective nemesis will not be running.

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After a month when jump racing has been in the grip of freezing temperatures, it was the turn of fog to cause the disruption this time but there was no disguising the authority of Big Buck’s in the Grade One AP Wins Sports Personality Long Walk Hurdle.

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The Grade One AP Wins Sports Personality Long Walk Hurdle was dug out of the snowbound fixture at Ascot two weeks ago and rescheduled for Newbury’s meeting on Wednesday, which itself will require a thaw to disperse what is left of the three inches of snow that has been covering the track.

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After the brief respite, when Cheltenham’s International meeting came through unscathed by the elements, what has become an all-to-normal disruption to service resumed when the card at Huntingdon on Sunday was lost due to a frozen track.

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Diamond Harry was up the front for most of the way and Darryl Jacob committed to the lead off the home turn as Denman did his best to threw down his challenge under top weight of 11st 12lb. But that welter burden, which he had carried to victory twice before proved just too much this time and it was left to Burton Point to try and catch the winner over the last two fences.

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Big Buck’s began his season with an easy win in the Grade Two sportingbet.com Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury.

Tony McCoy became the latest stand-in jockey for the Paul Nicholls stable – replacing Noel Fehily, who had broken his wrist in a fall at the track 24 hours earlier – but it did not take a champion jockey’s ride to win on this one.

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Big Buck’s will be short odds for the Grade One Racing UK Long Walk Hurdle at Newbury, but that does not mean he is without opposition, numerically at least. A field of eight take him on, lead by exciting prospect Diamond Harry.

The two-mile division is regarded as the cream of the crop but, according to the British Horseracing Authority handicap ratings, Big Buck’s is better than any of them – which is not bad for a horse who was only sent hurdling as an afterthought.

That came after he had unseated his rider in last year’s Hennessy Gold Cup and Nicholls decided on the switch partly based on the jumping of Big Buck’s and partly because of the veritable log jam that the trainer has in terms of staying chasers. The horse’s owner, Andy Stewart, is never one to be scared off by the opposition but when the home team is headed up by Kauto Star and Denman, then discretion is the better part of valour.   

The rewards have been an unbeaten run of five, highlighted by his victory in the World Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. Big Buck’s started this season with a seven-length victory over Lough Derg in the Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury last month, and he is now rated 5lb better than any hurdler currently in training.

Just how much better Diamond Harry may be than his current assessment of 165 is an open question and he looked impressive when winning a handicap, as the topweight, at Haydock Park last month on his first try at three miles. Diamond Harry was a Grade One winner as a novice however, he does have three and a quarter lengths to make up on Karabak, on their run behind Mikael D’Haguenet in the Ballymore Hurdle at Cheltenham in March, and this race does represent a huge step up in class from handicap company.

The Long Walk was saved from a snow-bound grave when Ascot’s meeting was abandoned 11 days ago and the rescheduling of the Grade One Lexus Chase, which got lost in the fog at Leopardstown yesterday, makes for a game of musical saddles among the jockeys.   

Nicholls already has a stranglehold on the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup, with Kauto Star and Denman, and attempts to add to his reserves when he runs What A Friend who will now be ridden by Sam Thomas.

Barry Geraghty was due to ride but has commitments at Newbury today and the same to Ruby Walsh, who will be on Big Bucks, but he had opted to ride Cooldine for Willie Mullins. Cooldine was favourite before betting was suspended but, having not run since April, he may well need the run. What a Friend, a fast-improving six-year-old, may not have been able to handle Denman in the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury last month – beaten three and a half lengths in receipt of 22lbs – but there is nothing of that calibre in this field.

The other Grade One race on the card is the Leopardstown Golf Centre December Festival Hurdle for which Solwhit is the favourite but Sublimity beat him by three and a quarter lengths in the “Fighting Fifth” Hurdle at Newcastle last month – when the pair finished second and third to Go Native – and seems to be back to something like his best form following a breathing operation earlier this year.

He had just unseated Sam Thomas at the last fence of the Hennessy Gold Cup, having been bang in contention, and then Nicholls came up with what he admitted at the time was the “mad idea” of sending the horse back hurdling.

 The rest, as they say, is history and Big Buck’s extended his winning sequence to five in the Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury last month. It was not much of a contest because nothing was able to get Big Buck’s out of second gear and, aside from a slight stumble jumping the last flight, Ruby Walsh could have been hauled in front of the stewards for schooling in public were it not for the fact that Big Buck’s beat Lough Derg by seven lengths. 

“How he won that is how he’s been working at home – he just ambles along like that,” Nicholls said. “Physically he’s a different horse to what he was last year. Horses like him and Kauto need a run to sharpen them up. I was a bit nervous if he’d be a bit lazy – you could run him in a seller and he’d only win a length.

“But he’s a bit more mature and he’s done that really nicely. Ability-wise he’s probably as good as anything we’ve got. He doesn’t jump a fence as well as some and while I’ve got Kauto there’s no point. We might try in the future.”

More immediately Big Buck’s is one of 11 confirmed for the Grade One BGC Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot on Saturday. Among his potential rivals is Diamond Harry, a Grade One winner in his novice season, who made an impressive return this season when making light of top weight in a handicap at Haydock Park in November.

That persuaded Diamond Harry’s trainer, Nick Williams, to postpone plans to send the horse novice chasing with a view to a crack at the World Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival and this race should give Williams a fair indication if those aspirations have any validity.  

Alan King’s yard is still taking time to recover from the muscle enzyme problem that has been the cause of his disrupted season so far but he has two possible runners. Karabak was six lengths second to Zaynar in last month’s  Ascot Hurdle, the form of which has been boosted by Zaynar’s follow-up win at Cheltenham on Saturday, and is stepped up to three miles once more while Katchit, the winner of the 2008 Champion Hurdle, would be running at the distance for the first time.

All distances seem to come the same to Lough Derg, won this in 2007, and would be seeking a fourth course win if his trainer, David Pipe, elects to run.

Paul Wheeler

The topweight has to carry 11st 12lb, the same weight that he made light of to win the race two years ago. However, as Denman is rated 13lbs higher than two years ago this promises to be a more searching test as he attempts to become only the third horse to win the Hennessy twice. Given that the other two were Mandarin (1957 and ’61) and Arkle (1964 and ’65) he would be keeping good company.

Denman will have 20 other runners keeping him company at the start with some well-handicapped rivals among the lower weights in what is always one of the most hotly contested handicaps of the season.

The other worry is whether Denman can be ready for such a test. Two years ago he came to the race without a prep run, because of a lack of suitable ground last month, and having been restricted to a racecourse gallop at Exeter.

The question this year, having had a similar preparation, is just how close Denman is to the imperious “Tank”  - as part-owner Harry Findlay describes him – who took this race as part of a nine-race unbeaten streak that culminated in his victory in the 2007 Cheltenham Gold Cup?

That Gold Cup win, 20 months ago, was the nine-year-old’s last and his start to last season was delayed until February because of a fibrillating heart problem. He put up a valiant effort when 13 lengths second to top stable companion Kauto Star in the Gold Cup, but then took a crashing fall at Aintree in April in the totesport Bowl.

The doubts over just how close Denman may be to his best form can be balanced by the fact that he is now 8lbs lower than his career-high handicap rating. It is also worth noting that his trainer, Paul Nicholls, is a man whose frankness with the betting public is a masterclass for his brethren. 

Having said that, Denman is a hard horse to assess in terms of fitness purely from his work on the gallops, Nicholls believes that he has the horse somewhere near to the level of two years ago. The memory of the moment in the Hennessy when Denman jumped his way to the front at the eighth fence and then proceeded to grind a competitive field into the turf for an 11-length victory suggests that he is still the force to be reckoned with, while Ballyfitz – a promising fourth in the Paddy Power Gold Cup at Cheltenham two weeks ago – could be the one to profit if Denman fails to live up to expectations.

The expectations for Big Buck’s have changed in the last 12 months and he goes into the sportingbet.com Long Distance Hurdle as the leading staying hurdler around. Last year he was in contention jumping the last fence in the Hennessy, only to unseat his rider.

That race prompted Nicholls to switch the horse to hurdles since when he has been unbeaten in four runs, including the World Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, and it would be a major shock if he failed in this race.

Cheltenham has not proved such fertile terrain for Binocular. He has finished runner-up in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and third in the Champion Hurdle in the last two seasons. However, he is unbeaten in five starts over hurdles for Nicky Henderson, whose hurdlers have a 24% strike-rate this season, and the flatter course at Newcastle should suit Binocular when he lines up for the wbx.com ‘Fighting Fifth’ Hurdle.

Paul Wheeler