Rocky ride to glory, Rambo

Tony Smurthwaite13 April 2012

An ambitious Norwegian plan to take on Britain and Ireland's top hurdlers has slipped up at the first obstacle again.

Rambo Flyer, a horse with 15 wins from 18 starts over hurdles, was due to run at Cheltenham this weekend as preparation for an assault on the Smurfit Champion Hurdle on the same course in March.

His trainer, Are Hyldmo - the Aidan O'Brien of Norwegian racing - was hoping a good run would convince the horse's owners to move his training operation to England.

However, Rambo will miss the Cheltenham race because he has yet to recover from an injury sustained at Ascot this month. Rambo has been shipped back to Norway and dejection has set in like an Oslo winter.

"I am very disappointed," said the 42-year-old Hyldmo, who has been champion trainer in Norway, and won its Derby five times.

"In Norway, the Flat and jump seasons run in parallel because of the weather in winter and we are coming to the end of our season. This trip came after quite a busy year at home. The whole thing is deeply disappointing.

"At Ascot he just never saw the first hurdle and made a bad mistake. I expected him to win."

Despite that reverse, Hyldmo is keen to carry on the experiment. He likes England, and he loves Cheltenham.

In truth, Rambo Flyer would need to carry 50lb less than reigning Champion Hurdler Istabraq to have any chance against him next spring.

However, Hyldmo is determined to win the big race one day with Rambo Flyer - to go with the seven-year-old's three wins in the version they run each year at Ovrevoll.

However, the horse has yet to run well away from home.

"He has won everything he can in Norway which is why we wanted to bring him to England," Hyldmo added.

"I may still tell the owners that if they want him to win here, they will have to have him trained in England. He deserves the chance."

Racehorses from Scandinavia have long been regarded as novelties when trying their luck in Britain.

Rambo Flyer's appearance at Ascot earlier this month came after four straight wins at home but he made such a bad blunder at the first hurdle at Ascot that he was out of contention before most racegoers knew he was there.

A year earlier he arrived in similar expectation, for the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle, but flopped again.

Jockey John McLaughlin pulled up his mount with three to run, hearing an unusual noise in the horse's breathing.

Take out those dismal efforts, and a fall at the last when 20 lengths clear in last year's Champion Hurdle at Ovrevoll, and Rambo's form figures read like those of another Sly Stallone icon, the great Rocky Marciano, 1111-1111.

According to Hyldmo, such an effort is akin to Istabraq winning every race in Ireland.

There are only 24 jump races in Sweden, 16 in Norway and none in Denmark.

There is a clear sense of Hyldmo and his better-known training compatriots Rune Haugen and Wido Neuroth growing too big for the races in their homeland.

Haugen has a growing penchant for runners at Newmarket and Neuroth is bringing a string of horses to Chantilly during the winter, when week-long spells of minus 15 deg C bring training in Norway to a standstill.

"I've been coming to England for years, since I spent a year with Henry Cecil in 1975," said Hyldmo.

"If I should ever get the chance to train abroad with the owners to support it, I would love it to be in England. The racing there is fantastic."

Tony Smurthwaite is a writer with the Racing Post

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