Interesting quote from Chris Gordon from Oct last year...
27Oct23 Cheltenham (16.5Gd, RPR 131)
I came here pretty confident. I'm usually a pessimistic bugger but I rode Our Champ myself in a bit of work the other day with Aucunrisque and he went extremely well. We don't usually have them off the bridle but Aucunrisque was struggling and I weighed two stone more than the lad on him. There's loads of options for him. I might look at those novice Graded races as time goes on, he's a very experienced jumper and races like the Dovecote could be an option. He's got plenty of pace - Chris Gordon, trainer.
Given CG certainly knew what he was doing with Aucunrisque last year, you
could read quite a lot into that around Our Champ's chances for the race this year,
if he's spot on.
I'll be there, I'll watch out for the wink from Our Champ in the parade ring. But I suspect a fair few others might be winking, too