Racing: Landing Light beckons for Fitzgerald in Bula Hurdle

For those who were knocked into a trance by the sight of Istabraq surrendering his title and career at the Cheltenham Festival last spring, today represents the perfect hour to be revived by a snap of the fingers.

It would be possible to watch today's Bula Hurdle and convince yourself you were still at the base of Cleeve Hill in March and observing the denouement of the Champion Hurdle.

The first, second, fourth and fifth from last season's Champion, in the shape of Hors La Loi, Marble Arch, Geos and Landing Light reconvene for the race named after Fred Winter's great old hurdler and if you throw the Festival ante-post favourite Rooster Booster into the mix then it becomes clear what sort of feast is being laid out for us.

None of the maestros though will conduct the early proceedings. That honour will go to the habitual front-runner Al Skywalker, whose trainer, Jennifer Majette, has not only heard of England but is actually visiting the land of dark satanic mills for the first time from her base in North Carolina. We must applaud her vision, as that will surely be the only praiseworthy element of her journey.

As for the genuine contenders, we should start with the first horse up the Cheltenham hill nine months ago. Hors La Loi traditionally needs at least one outing to shake off the rust, but we must not write him off according to Ruby Walsh, who today sits on, rather than stares at, the gelding's bottom for the first time.

"All I know about him is the sight of his backside which I had to look at as it was going up the hill in March," said the man who rode Marble Arch in the most recent Champion. "He's keen at times but I think he's a pretty straightforward horse. He jumps well and he is a Champion Hurdle winner after all.

"It rode like any other championship race that day. They jumped out and they went real quick. He had to jump and he had to stay and he had to have the ability. He had all of those."

Hors La Loi, however, must carry a penalty and that tips the scales against him. It is even harder to dismiss the claims of Rooster Booster, whose handicap success at Cheltenham's Open meeting was so fluent, so comprehensive that it created a wave which ultimately took him to the head of the Champion betting. He will be a short price this afternoon and probably deserves to be, but is just about worth taking on until he proves his apparent improvement in conditions races.

Almost perversely, the value option seems to be LANDING LIGHT (nap 3.05), who was plumb last on his reappearance behind Baracouda at Ascot. That, though, was on soft ground and Nicky Henderson's gelding does not like carrying his rifle over his head. We should better remember a horse who is still young, a course-and-distance winner proven in these level-weights contests. The quirky Landing Light will make it hard work for Mick Fitzgerald for much of today's voyage but he may also do the same to his opponents in the closing stages.

In the Tripleprint Gold Cup, Cyfor Malta has been raised 10lb by the handicapper for his win here in the Thomas Pink Gold Cup, which leaves him vulnerable. On a line through the runner-up and subsequent Wincanton victor Poliantas, he has it to do with Golden Goal (next best 2.30) and Fondmort. The former is young, improving and races off the minimum – a winning formula.

The chase for the big money this weekend takes place elsewhere though, in the Orient tomorrow, when Hong Kong stages its series of international events, this year including four Group One contests. The main race on the card at Sha Tin is the Cup, which looks, as it always seems to be, at the mercy of Godolphin, this time in the shape of Grandera.

The Sprint has been won for the last two years by Australia's Falvelon, so now seems to be the time to follow the French maxim "jamais deux sans trois". Godolphin's Ekraar is also a worthy consideration to make up for an unlucky defeat in last year's Vase, while the money, and you do not get more money sloshing around anywhere else but the former colony, tells us that Japan's Tokai Point is the one for the Mile.