Road to the Gold Cup 2012

Aragorn said:
I'm pretty sure they will step him up as they want to know if they have a Gold Cup horse on their hands. I firmly believe they have and i'll be steaming into Rubi Light again. QDLR and Joncol will not see which way he went.
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The Lexus is going to be an attritional race, Aragorn, and not the kind of event you would be wanting to test your horse's stamina for the first time. Even if Rubi Light does manage to stay the trip, I wouldn't be surprised if they had to tear the arse out of him to do so, and any remote Gold Cup hopes could well be left behind in Leopardstown.

QDLR is by far and away the most logical winner of the race, but Boston's Angel in first-time blinkers will be my bet.
 
I can see the Bostons Angel argument at the price as he clearly has to be better than he has shown so far but I just feel that Rubi Light is going to put them all to the sword from the front. Granted its an attritional race and he isn't guaranteed to stay but he's only six, is improving fast and his jumping will be worth a good few lengths during the race.

Last time out I thought his price was a gift, this time i'll admit i'm less confident but at 4/1 against this field i'm happy to plough in again.
 
3/1 Long Run
5/1 Kauto Star
12/1 Grands Crus
16/1 Quito de la Roque
20/1 Rubi Light
25/1 Diamond Harry, Weird Al and Time for Rupert
33/1 Captain Chris and Jessies Dream


I appreciate that he might not go that route and at this stage I'd sooner back him at 20s NRNB but Captain Chris is a fantastic price. Anchored at the back in a relatively slowly run King George he stayed on really well but the front two had gone. There is some mileage in this market to say the least. Kauto has got half a chance now his Cheltenham better has retired but Grands Crus hasn't a hope in hell and Quito would need a bog.
 
Pretty damning if the Irish staying chasers cannot beat Synchronised . They have no chance with Kauto and Long Run on that form.
 
I think Grands Crus has an outstanding chance.

Hope they enter him for the Pillar and then we will see.
 
There is a great deal of difference between novice chases and the Gold Cup .

It is simply idiotic to run novices in that race they are simply unprepared for jumping fences at that speed. Lanzarote and Gloria Victis paid the ultimate price , Beef or Salmon was utterly unable to cope with the pace of the race fell heavily and was injured . Captain Christy won , almost certainly only because of the gormlessness of Richard Pitman tracking a dodgy jumper but his jumping was terrifying especially at the last .

In my opinion novices should be banned from the Gold Cup .
 
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Ardross said:
Pretty damning if the Irish staying chasers cannot beat Synchronised . They have no chance with Kauto and Long Run on that form.
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Very disappointing from an Irish perspective alright - feel sorry for anyone who backed him ante-post forthe Welsh National - he would have sluiced up. I thought Rubi Light was a certainty today - he probably stayed ok just not good enough. His jumping was a little sticky early on but Syncronised absolutely hacked up.
 
Ardross said:
There is a great deal of difference between novice chases and the Gold Cup .

It is simply idiotic to run novices in that race they are simply unprepared for jumping fences at that speed. Lanzarote and Gloria Victis paid the ultimate price , Beef or Salmon was utterly unable to cope with the pace of the race fell heavily and was injured . Captain Christy won , almost certainly only because of the gormlessness of Richard Pitman tracking a dodgy jumper but his jumping was terrifying especially at the last .

In my opinion novices should be banned from the Gold Cup

I'm pretty sure the RSA has a grim casualty list too??
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harry said:
Ardross said:
There is a great deal of difference between novice chases and the Gold Cup .

It is simply idiotic to run novices in that race they are simply unprepared for jumping fences at that speed. Lanzarote and Gloria Victis paid the ultimate price , Beef or Salmon was utterly unable to cope with the pace of the race fell heavily and was injured . Captain Christy won , almost certainly only because of the gormlessness of Richard Pitman tracking a dodgy jumper but his jumping was terrifying especially at the last .

In my opinion novices should be banned from the Gold Cup

I'm pretty sure the RSA has a grim casualty list too??
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Historically, that is a fair point but in recent years there have been smaller classier fields and the impression is that it has become a much safer race . The old Jewson and the improved profile of the 4 miler may have played a part in that.
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True....I was at the centre course for Gloria Victis and Looks Like Trouble was a very good Gold Cup winner.
 
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On The Bridle said:
Very disappointing from an Irish perspective alright - feel sorry for anyone who backed him ante-post forthe Welsh National - he would have sluiced up. I thought Rubi Light was a certainty today - he probably stayed ok just not good enough. His jumping was a little sticky early on but Syncronised absolutely hacked up.
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I'm willing to go to war with Rubi one more time. He is only turning 7 and today was a step into the unknown. He was out again relatively quickly after the John Durkan too.

Freshen him up and give him a crack off the winner again.
 
Thought the 1st 3 in the chase all got chances in the gold cup.

Wouldnt have predicted the winner winning it like that, it was v impressive. Quicken from the last and put the race to bed in a matter of strides. Quito needed a much stronger gallop than that to be seen at his best, he will get that in the GC. Im sure as anything the GC will be a stamina test davy will also get a whip ban!) , with Ruby trying to put Long Run jumping under pressure and W Cohen will need to ride Long Run more prominently or kick on sooner to use the horse's stamina.

Rubi light prove he stays he will be a contender whichever race he ends up in. Its hard to put the winner's form into context, I got a feeling it might just be a funny race like the Arc this year but than again, there are no apparent excuses for the others. Every horse seemed to have run their race.
 
granger said:
I'm willing to go to war with Rubi one more time. He is only turning 7 and today was a step into the unknown. He was out again relatively quickly after the John Durkan too.

Freshen him up and give him a crack off the winner again.
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Just my view, but his jumping wasn't as big an asset as it is on soft ground, and he could never get away from them yesterday. Can't be many that would trouble him in the right conditions though.
 
Rubi Light looked like he stayed but didn't relish the trip. I would think he'd be more of a force back in trip.

QDLR is a slowboat and I can't see him running well in the GC at all. He'll be out of his comfort zone from the word go and he'll never been able to stay close enough to make use of his undoubted stamina up the hill.

I can't believe that Synchronised has improved that much so can only think the Irish aren't very good.
 
Why not Reet? It was his first run in a decent company off level weights, and his handicap form is top notch. He was hard to predict, but some did (Pricewise) and for me, he was a very taking winner (albeit below the front 2 in the King George, which is nothing to be ashamed of).
 
The way Synchronised won yesterday, you would think that o'neill would have known long ago that he had something other than a good handicapper on his hands. I think it was a very impressive performance personally
 
While popular opinion is about 60-40 against Grands Crus running in the Gold Cup (according to an RP poll), one of his owners (Roger Stanley) maintains he is 70-30 more likely to run in the Gold Cup than the RSA.

I hope he doesn’t make the mistake that that Terry Neill made in insisting his brilliant Gloria Victis be pitched in at premier level. I’d go for the RSA this time. Even the great steeplechasers such as Denman have used the RSA as a stepping stone. It’s true that the RSA in a hard enough race in itself, but the Gold Cup is another level. I’m with Ardross that novices should be restricted to novice races.
 
Hennessy said: "There's not a bother on him this morning and we were happy with the horse. I was a bit surprised by the winner as everyone thought he wanted bottomless ground, but he did it really well.

"Andrew (Lynch) came in after the race and said our lad just didn't quite handle the faster ground. He would definitely have preferred it softer, but having said that, a few others would probably have liked it more testing as well.

"I think he stayed the three miles all right. He managed to hold off Quito De La Roque in the straight, which makes you think he stayed well.

"We won't make any decision yet but at this stage, I'd be inclined to say he'll run in the Ryanair again at Cheltenham, rather than the Gold Cup. He's still only a six-year-old, so hopefully there is time to go for the Gold Cup one day."
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Looks like Grand Cru may head for the Gold Cup... drifting out to 11/2 for RSA on betfair (if we can trust that!?!), and being punted for Gold Cup.
 
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