Road to the Gold Cup 2011

Pricewise makes his ante-post selection in tomorrow's RP so expect some change in the market. I reckon he'll go for either Pandorama or Denman.
 
Twenty minutes before the King George and these are the prices on the machine:

Imperial Commander - 5.1 - After KG 4.4
Kauto Star - 5.7.....10
Denman - 9.2.....8.8

Diamond Harry - 12......10
Pandorama - 16.5.........14.5
Pride of Dulcotte - 20.......20
Long Run - 23........7.8

Planet of Sound - 46......65
The Nightingale - 60.......55
Forpady - 55..........55


Long Run shorter than Denman. Not sure about that at all.
 
Last edited:
5 hours after the KG

IC .......................5
Long Run ..............8
Denman................9
Kauto...................12
DH.......................10.5
Pandorama ............15
P.O.D....................20
Sizing Europe..........80

Hope all is ok with Sizing
 
Sizing's price holding up for RyanAir (24) so nothing too sinister in GC price hopefully. I took the same price a couple of days back.
 
Sizing and Somersby both appeal for the Ryanair. I think the oddsmakers are seriously overrating the Poquelin/Tranquil Sea strain of form.
 
I’d rather be on Denman than Long Run for the Gold Cup. Having said that they seem to have been working on Long Run’s jumping and if he improves again a run in the low 180s would be good enough to win most Gold Cups and figure in this one. I believe a performance in the mid-180s will be required this time and can see that coming from either Denman or Imperial Commander, with preference for the former.

Kauto I don’t like at Cheltenham anyway. His concentration seems to be wandering these days (I think it is this rather than his ability as such). I’d like to see him run in races other than at Cheltenham now.
 
On Pando

Meade said: "We'll go for the Hennessy and see how that goes. If that went well it (the Gold Cup) is what everybody dreams of and we'd love to go for it."
He added: "The ground is important to him, though. It would have to be good to soft at least, but we've got a long way to go yet."
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I have just spoken to Clive. We agreed that yesterday now gives us a bit of challenge with the horse - and hopefully we, and most importantly, the horse will rise to it.
He will be prepared for a tilt at a third Gold Cup victory in March - different ground, different track, different day - and we would like to aim him for a third victory at Down Royal in the autumn, too.
As long as he is enjoying his racing and running well, then he will continue - he is 11, not 13.
Yesterday, was undoubtedly a big disappointment. He was never travelling or jumping with any real fluency, but it wasn't as if he ran a poor race. Without his blunder at the second last, he probably would have been a fair second to a very good horse.
But that clearly wasn't his best form.
I am not making excuses but I can reveal that when he got back last night and stuck his head in the water bucket, he bled from both nostrils. He has never done it before, and will probably never do it again.
It wasn't a big bleed but it indicates that he probably bled during the race (possibly after his mistake at the second last, which meant he had to dig deep to get home), which would not have aided his cause.
But the horse was fine going into the race. You may have read this morning that he wasn't buzzing in his box yesterday. But he is like a seasoned human athlete these days. Experience of big races breeds a certain calmness, and I think he was A1 going into the race, so there are no excuses on that score.
So it is up to me and my team here at Ditcheat to get him right for Cheltenham; and we will relish the challenge.
We fancied The Nightingale to run well but he may have found 3m too far.
I can reveal exclusively here that he finished distressed and we have discovered that he has a fibrillating heart, similar to the problem that Denman suffered from.
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I think that some of the "over the hill" stuff has been....err... over the top

Paul Haywards piece in the Observer today was particular presumptious (or clueless).

Chances are that time may well have caught up with KS but wriiting off is daft. Havent goit the formbooks to hand but See more business and Wayward lad were two fine horses that came back a little at an advanced stage of career (correct if im wrong).

Jumps isnt infected with the dismal money obsession that often makes flat racing about as joyless as following a spreadsheet (and with owners with the generous outlook on life of a Bob Diamond).
 
There must have been something wrong with Wayward Lad - if I remember rightly he just stopped getting home at all . Then suddenly he came back and won his third KG at a big price and ran Dawn Run so close at Cheltenham . He was only 9 or 10 though I think .
 
Wayward Lad was another who excelled on a flatter track. The hill at Cheltenham always just got the better of him, no matter how hard he tried. After that courageous run at Cheltenham, he went on to trounce a decent field at Aintree (just before that disgraceful show of selling him before retiring).
 
redhead said:
Wayward Lad was another who excelled on a flatter track. The hill at Cheltenham always just got the better of him, no matter how hard he tried. After that courageous run at Cheltenham, he went on to trounce a decent field at Aintree (just before that disgraceful show of selling him before retiring).
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Not that year he didn't . He and Dawn Run were to clash . She fell ( sadly the month after she fell again and died at Auteuil) and he failed to catch Beau Ranger .

He did , after some runs that suggested he was well on the downgrade - finish his career in style under a new jockey Graham McCourt replacing Brad win his last race the 3 mile chase at Aintree - I cannot remember whether it is still the Betfair Bowl.
 
I have had no bet but it's hard to argue he only had a 1 in 5 chance of winning; clearly much higher.
 
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