RACING: SIZING EUROPE might be one of the hottest favourites at Cheltenham to defend his Queen Mother Champion Chase crown but trainer Henry De Bromhead is feeling no extra pressure going into the 2012 festival.
The two-mile title holder is set to travel to his fifth successive festival in three weeks with some bookmakers rating him an odds-on shot to win for the third year in a row.
A rout of his old rival Big Zeb at Punchestown earlier this month looks to have set him up perfectly as he attempts to win at the Cheltenham track for a fourth time in five starts.
The one blip on his Cheltenham record was when hurting himself in the 2008 Champion Hurdle. He also had to be withdrawn on the morning of the 2009 Champion Hurdle due to travel sickness.
This time he is one of the “big four” attempting to defend their championships but De Bromhead is no more concerned with the weight of expectation than usual.
“In many ways he had more to prove in the last couple of years. Now he’s going back having done it so our focus is no more different than any other time. We’re just trying to get him there,” he said yesterday.
“He was very good last year and seems just as good this season. But his price this time doesn’t matter. I went there last year giving him as much of a chance as I do this time,” De Bromhead added.
This afternoon’s Punchestown fixture sees the return to action of the former Cheltenham hero Cousin Vinny in the opening conditions hurdle. The ex-bumper champion hasn’t run in 22 months and could be vulnerable at the trip to another former Grade One winner in Won In The Dark.
Double Double got thrown out by the stewards after finishing runner-up to Burn And Turn at Leopardstown last time when Andrew McNamara failed to weigh-in. Charles O’Brien’s runner goes in the two-mile maiden hurdle but has to concede a fair chunk of weight to Conor O’Dwyer’s Competitive Edge, who has run into a couple of good ones recently in Aupcharlie and Make Your Mark.
In the Binyanis won a point-to- point last month and could follow up for Nina Carberry and Gordon Elliott in the second of the bumpers.
