McCoy Partner Starluck In Huntingdon

The news that 15-times champion jockey and current BBC Sports Personality of the Year Tony McCoy is to partner Starluck on his fencing debut at Huntingdon on February 24 has already prompted a number of firms to trim the horse’s ante-post odds for winning the forthcoming Irish Independent Arkle Chase at the Cheltenham Festival on March 15, writes Elliot Slater.

A classy two-mile hurdler who falls just a few pounds short of the very top class, the Alan Fleming-trained six-year-old finished second to Peddlers Cross in the Grade 1 Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newbury in November (champion hurdler Binocular finished back in third), before running slightly below the expectations of those giving UK and Irish racing tips, when third to the revitalised Binocular in the Grade 1 Christmas Hurdle at Kempton in the middle of January.

Despite the disappointment of his last run it was still anticipated by those who study UK and Irish racing that Starluck would take his chance in the Champion Hurdle, the 160-rated timber topper having few obvious other options at the meeting. That was until Fleming surprised most observers by announcing that he had schooled the Key of Luck gelding over fences and, (having been pleased with the way he jumped), is now thinking of an audacious bid for the Arkle Chase, even though the horse hasn’t jumped a fence in public less than four weeks before the big race itself!

The news that McCoy will be aboard when Starluck makes his fencing bow prompted some firms to trim his ‘Arkle’ odds to as short as 16/1, and he will certainly have to be useful over the larger obstacles with some talented performers such as Dan Breen, Giorgio Quercus and America Trilogy amongst his potential rivals at Huntingdon.

McCoy has never ridden Starluck before, indeed he has only ridden for Fleming three times in the last five years (winning once), so the booking was always likely to create plenty of interest.