Big Zeb and Barry Geraghty after their Champion Chase win in March
PICTURE: Edward WhitakerGeraghty hoping faith in Zeb will be rewarded
BIG ZEB will be out to give Master Minded's fans something to think about on Wednesday and Barry Geraghty will be helping him to do it after the Queen Mother Champion Chase winner's regular jockey plumped for Leopardstown over Punchestowns.
Geraghty, as stable jockey to Nicky Henderson, might have been expected to be at Newbury, where Punchestowns, one of last season's top novice chasers, makes his seasonal reappearance on a glittering card set to be dominated by the presence of Big Buck's in the rearranged Long Walk Hurdle.
However, Geraghty has opted to stay in Ireland, where an outstanding Leopardstown card plays host to two headline-grabbing Willie Mullins-trained hurdlers in Hurricane Fly and Zaidpour, the almost impossible punting puzzle that is the Paddy Power Chase and an intriguing clash of Ireland's three best 2m chasers, Big Zeb, Golden Silver and Captain Cee Bee, in the Grade 1 Paddy Power Dial-A-Bet Chase.
Big Zeb, the Cheltenham champion of 2010, has already beaten Golden Silver once this year, but he can still be backed at 4-1for this season's race due to the re-emergence of 6-4 ante-post favourite Master Minded.
Geraghty, however, retains faith in Big Zeb, and he is looking forward to riding the Colm Murphy-trained nine-year-old once again.
He said: "Nicky was good enough to let me off for the day to continue my association with Big Zeb at Leopardstown and I suppose it helped having AP available to deputise at Newbury.
"Hopefully things will work out well at Leopardstown and at Newbury. Had the weather not intervened and delayed the Leopardstown race by two days, the situation I found myself in wouldn't have arisen."
Mullins will be hoping Golden Silver can reverse last month's Navan placing with Big Zeb, but he has even better prospects of landing the Festival Hurdle with Hurricane Fly - a general 4-1 shot for the Stan James Champion Hurdle - and the Future Champions Novice Hurdle with Zaidpour, who trades at the same price for the Supreme Novices' Hurdle following his devastating triumph in the Royal Bond Hurdle two weeks ago.
Cheltenham fancies are also everywhere to be seen at Newbury, where Big Buck's has been installed a 1-5 favourite with Ladbrokes to stretch his unbeaten run to ten in the Long Walk Hurdle, a contest this year sponsored by his owner Andy Stewart.
Stewart also owns half of Ghizao, Coral's 8-1 favourite for the Irish Independent Arkle Trophy, who reopposes his recent Cheltenham victim Captain Chris in a fascinating novice chases that alsofeatures the British debut of Henderson's highly-regarded French import Surfing.
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