Trainer Alan Fleming is clearly a disappointed man after seeing his stable star Starluck finish a well beaten third behind reigning champion hurdler Binocular in the William Hill Christmas Hurdle at Kempton Park, writes Elliot Slater. 

Last season the grey ran an absolute blinder to make the high-class Go Native pull out all the stops (Binocular back in third) in the Christmas Hurdle, eventually failing by only a short-head to land the Grade 1 event, but this time around, on ground that his handler feels was rather more testing than had been anticipated, the six-year-old was never travelling well enough to get into the race and make his presence felt. 

Fifth in last year’s Champion Hurdle (behind Binocular) and a good second on his reappearance in the Grade 1 Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newbury, where he gave the smart Peddlers Cross a good race, Starluck’s best form has regularly been on a decent surface so the glue-like conditions at the Sunbury track last time out would appear a valid excuse for a below-par effort and horse racing fans should remember this.

No firm plans appear to have been made just yet as to where owner Andrew Wates’ classy sort will go next, but he returned home from his Kempton effort in decent shape, ate up and appears none the worse for the outing. Starluck’s Champion Hurdle odds doubled after his defeat and he is now available at up to 50/1 in the horse racing betting odds to improve on last year’s performance, but it has to be assumed that he would be an unlikely runner at Cheltenham if there was plenty of cut in the ground. In any case, it would not surprise in the slightest to hear that Fleming might prefer to keep him fresh and wait until Aintree where underfoot conditions are invariably more suitable for the Key of Luck gelding.