Kim To Be Given World Hurdle Entry

Nigel Twiston-Davies has raised the fascinating prospect of last season’s Champion Hurdle runner-up Khyber Kim being stepped up to three miles at the Cheltenham Festival 2011 in March to have a crack at the mighty Big Bucks in the World Hurdle, writes Elliot Slater.

Twiston-Davies was speaking to reporters a day after Khyber Kim had finished a 13-length fourth to Binocular in the WillamHill.com Christmas Hurdle at Kempton on his belated first outing of the season. After confirming that the nine-year-old had been badly in need of the outing and would improve considerably for it, his trainer than raised the possibility of entering Khyber Kim in the World Hurdle at Cheltenham, even though he has never gone beyond two-and-a-half miles in his career.

With the Welsh Champion Hurdle at Ffos Las next month (over two miles) being Khyber Kim’s next outing, it does seem a somewhat unorthodox way of judging whether or not the horse needs an extra mile, but in fairness to Twiston-Davies it is arguable that the Mujahid gelding put up the best performance of his hurdles career when trouncing the useful Muirhead by an easy 5-lengths at Aintree last April in the Grade 1 John Smith’s Dick Francis Aintree Hurdle, over two-and-a-half miles.

Khyber Kim isn’t even quoted at present in the ante-post list for the World Hurdle, (doubtless he will be shortly), and being such a high-class performer it is possible that bookmakers might not be overly generous with their odds, even allowing for the obvious stamina doubts.

Big Bucks remains the red-hot 4/7 favourite to complete a hat-trick of wins in the race, but if I was a layer I would be reluctant to go bigger than 12/1 against Khyber Kim, given his obvious ability and shrewd connections. It really will be very interesting to see how plans for the horse develop over the coming weeks.