Cheltenham Gold Cup Preview

The 2016 Cheltenham Gold Cup looks wide open with five horses vying for favouritism. To complicate matters further, three of them are trained by Willie Mullins who is chasing his first victory in chasing’s blue riband event.

Djakadam spearheads Mullins Gold Cup challenge.

Mullins looks set to resist the temptation to allocate different targets for his Gold Cup runners and his challenge will be led by last year’s runner-up Djakadam.

The seven-year-old moved well into the home straight last year but could not pass the determined Coneygree, eventually failing by a length and a half. With that rival absent through injury, Djakadam was promoted to Cheltenham Gold Cup favourite after winning impressively at Punchestown in December. His 12 lengths victory over Valseur Lido looks even better in light of the runner-up’s unlucky last fence exit in the Irish Gold Cup last month.

Djakadam was expected to confirm his status as market leader in the Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham in January but crashed out at the tenth fence. Mullins does not feel that the setback has damaged his preparation significantly and he remains a leading contender.

Valseur Lido has been neglected in the market in recent days and has drifted out to 20-1. Mullins believes that the Gold Cup trip will suit him much better than the extended two and a half miles of the Ryanair Chase. He is as short as 5-1 for the latter and the final decision rests with the owners, Gigginstown House Stud.

Cue Card and Vautour set to renew rivalry.

The King George VI Chase on Boxing Day provided a thrilling spectacle as Cue Card battled to a head victory over Vautour. The two are set to clash again in the Gold Cup along with the beaten favourite Don Cossack who crashed out at the second last.

Cue Card has been a magnificent servant to the Colin Tizzard stable and has already won a Champion Bumper and a Ryanair Chase at the festival. He dispelled doubts about his ability to stay three miles when winning the Betfair Chase at Haydock in 2013. He won the race for a second time in November before his epic battle with Vautour.

Connections of the runner-up were thrilled with their horse who was kicked for home early in the home straight. That was his first attempt at three miles and there remain question marks about his stamina for the extra quarter of a mile at Cheltenham. He was a brilliant winner of the JLT Novices’ Chase at last year’s festival over two and a half miles.

Don Cossack appeared to be staying on when he fell at Kempton and he bounced back with a bloodless victory at Thurles in January. Gordon Elliott’s nine-year-old thrashed Cue Card at Aintree last year on good ground and connections will be hoping that the ground does not become too soft.

Bryan Cooper expected to side with Don Poli

Jockey Bryan Cooper has to choose between the four Gigginstown entries; Don Poli, Don Cossack, Road To Riches and Valseur Lido. It will be a surprise if he deserts Don Poli who has won both of his races this season. Yet another representative of the Mullins stable, he burst into the Gold Cup picture when winning the RSA Chase impressively last year.

Road To Riches also holds an entry in the Ryanair and he really wants good ground to be at his best. Noel Meade felt that the testing conditions were responsible for his defeat by Carlingford Lough in the Irish Gold Cup. The winner was almost pulled up with four to jump at Leopardstown but the leaders folded up in the home straight. His main objective is thought to be the Grand National but he could take his chance if the going is suitably testing.

Cue Card is not completely alone in attempting to keep the Gold Cup on home soil. Alan King’s Smad Place won the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury in November before finishing fourth in the King George. The popular grey earned his place in the field when profiting from the fall of Djakadam in January.

Grand National winner Many Clouds is also in the line-up after his intended prep race at Kelso was abandoned. He finished sixth last year and a similar performance on Friday would set him up perfectly for another tilt at the Aintree showpiece.

The Cheltenham Gold Cup is due off at 3.30 on Friday 18th March and will be screened live on Channel 4.

By Harvey Mayson

Hennessy Gold Cup to provide Cheltenham clues

On November 29, one of the most competitive handicap races of the whole National Hunt season will be staged at Newbury as the Hennessy Gold Cup provides another thrilling spectacle with plenty of serious Cheltenham Festival contenders amongst what is sure to be a high-quality field of staying chasers.

Ahead of the big event betting firms are struggling to find a favourite and bet 10/1 the field. Take your pick from such as Fingal Bay [pictured], Djakadam, Smad Place, Many Clouds, Rocky Creek, and many, many more. The same horses can all be backed at 11.0 or bigger on Betfair.

It may well be the case that by the time the runners go down to the start at the Berkshire track a clear favourite will have emerged having either put up a notable performance in the interim or been the subject of a major off-course ante-post gamble. The Hennessy Gold Cup has a history of producing smart performances by horses that often go on to excel at the Cheltenham Festival four months later. In recent renewals Paul Nicholls’ superb Denman (winner in both 2007 & 2009) went on to land the Cheltenham Gold Cup, while Nicky Henderson’s Bobs Worth won the 2012 ‘Hennessy’ before following up in the blue riband event in the spring of 2013 in tremendous style.

It’s not only Gold Cup winners who come out of the Hennessy field. Plenty of horses have run well in the race before going on to land other big prizes, including the feature handicaps at the Cheltenham Festival and other major spring Festivals at Aintree and Punchestown. The Newbury contest is definitely one to keep a close eye as the cream of the staying handicap chasers, many of whom are graded class and often close to Grade 1 level, take each other on in what is always a tremendous spectacle.

With the Philip Hobbs team probably in better shape than any of the other major yards at this stage of the campaign it would be dangerous not to seriously consider the chance of his likeable Fingal Bay, formerly a very classy staying hurdler who has done well since making the transitions to the larger obstacles. His win last season in the listed Pertemps Network Handicap Hurdle final at the Cheltenham Festival shows what a versatile horse the eight-year-old son of King’s Theatre is.

His gutsy nose defeat of Southfield Theatre was a tremendous effort following a pleasing reappearance win at Exeter a month earlier. That came on the back of a long absence as the result of sustaining a serious injury early on in what had already become a very useful novice chasing career in autumn 2012. After his win at Cheltenham, Fingal Bay headed to the Punchestown Festival and contested the Grade 1 Ladbrokes World Series Hurdle, but could only finish fifth behind Jetson, a performance that convinced Hobbs that his charge was just a little short of the top rung over timber and that he should concentrate on chasing this season. There’s every chance that the likeable stayer could well prove a star over fences this season.

Another interesting contender for the Hennessy Gold Cup is Alan King’s Smad Place, a really tough performer who rarely runs a bad race. Twice placed third in the World Hurdle, Smad Place took really well to fences last season winning nicely at Exeter and at Newbury before going down with all guns blazing in a terrific renewal of the Grade 1 RSA Chase at the Cheltenham Festival. That race, often seen as a contest won by horses with future Gold Cup pretentions, eventually went the way of the Rebecca Curtis-trained O’Faolains Boy who wore down King’s game performer in the shadow of the post to score by a neck.

Like Fingal Bay, Smad Place will have his fair share of weight at Newbury but he looks a potential high-class chaser and could prove hard to beat if he is fully wound up on what is likely to be his first start of the campaign.

Oliver Sherwood’s Many Clouds has already thrown down his Hennessy Gold Cup marker in making an impressive winning reappearance in a listed chase at Carlisle in early-November, staying on in fine style to beat Nicky Richards’ Eduard and the Jonjo O’Neill-trained Holywell, favourite with some firms in the ante-post market for the Cheltenham Gold Cup itself.

Many Clouds was useful last term, and the Trevor Hemmings-owned stayer appears to have come to hand early this campaign and is on the upgrade. He looks just the right sort for the Newbury contest and is sure to prove popular on the big day in what is invariably a hot betting contest with so many horses being relatively unexposed and thought capable of better, not only by connections, but also by the betting public.