Business looks each-way value in Gold Cup
I’m a Best Mate fan and though he’s got to defy history to win it for the second year in a row and that’s not an easy thing to do, I just can’t see anything to beat him. Beef or Salmon is obviously a very good horse but this is a totally different story to what he’s been running against up to now.
I’d rather watch him run than get stuck into him but this will stand him in good stead, he’ll improve from here and his day will come in the Gold Cup.
If you haven’t backed Best Mate by now he doesn’t really represent much value at 7/4 so if it is value you’re after I have a feeling See More Business will have a squeak.
He’s the old man at the party but he’s won the Gold Cup and been placed last year and I wouldn’t rule out of a place again. He’s been round the course, he never knows when he’s beat and always gives his all. Don’t rule him out.
The other big Irish hope today is Limestone Lad in the Stayers’ Hurdle.
I read yesterday that he was stuck in Ireland so I hope the travel problems don’t upset him too much.
That extra day in the trailer could tell. Horses are like your or I. They prefer their own surroundings and if they have to stay in a strange bed they might not sleep as well and might not feel great in the morning.
And if he’s off his feed or his water he might feel it in a race like the Stayers.
But that would be the only worry and I can’t see it other than a two-horse race between him and Baracouda.
I think Baracouda could do it for JP McManus but I’ll be hoping Limestone gets home in front. It’ll start the biggest roar of the week if he does.
The first race of the day should see Charlie Swan celebrating aboard Golden Cross. He was telling me that the last time he didn’t ride a winner at the Festival was way back in 1992 but he’s confident of prolonging his winning streak on this one.
My best hope of success this afternoon is in the Grand Annual.
I’m booked on Fadoudal D’Cochet and though Dark’N Sharp is the one to beat I’d be hopeful for my one.
He’s in good shape and I’m hopeful he’ll run well. I’m certainly a lot happier after yesterday’s racing than I was on day one thanks to my second place on Martin Pipe’s Samon behind Xenophon in the Coral Cup.
He ran very well for me and the added bonus for me, as a Liverpool fan, was that Samon’s owners are Steve McManaman and Robbie Fowler. It was good to see Robbie with a smile on his face following the terrible disappointment of seeing Seebald fall in the Champion Chase when going well.
It’s no secret now that Robbie’s allergic to horses and he came to meet us with a doctor in tow. He got sick last year so yesterday he had the doc following him around just in case he got another bout!
It was an eventful day all round and another great day for the Irish. Moscow Flyer will grab all the headlines but the horse that won the Sun Alliance Hurdle, Hardy Eustace, is the one I think deserves all the credit.
He’s a very good horse, very decent, and, although he saved the bookies from their expected hammering at the hands of Pizarro, he wouldn’t have gone unbacked at third favourite.
The supposed biggest rival to Pizarro was Coolnagorna and he ended up disqualified for hampering Lord Sam at the second last. So Tony Dobbin wasn’t the happiest of campers leaving the course, I can tell you.
A seven-day ban would wipe the smile off any jockey’s face and needless to say Tony was out here of very quickly after his visit to the stewards.
The ride French jockey Jacques Ricou gave Jair Du Cochet in the Sun Alliance
Chase raised more than few eyebrows around here yesterday afternoon. Ricou came under the spotlight at Ascot earlier this season when he was unseated in the Reynoldstown and his reputation preceded him ahead of this race. Ricou held him up, and held him up and then held him up some more only making his move after the last to grab second place behind One Knight.
There were plenty around to criticise Ricou for not getting after him sooner, saying it cost them the race but I think he did the right thing. It’s possible the winner got a bit of a freebie up front on his own and won despite mistakes at a couple of fences which on another day would have seen him on the floor.
But on yesterday’s evidence I wouldn’t be quick to slag Ricou and I just don’t think it happened for the horse on the day.
There was certainly no slagging Barry Geraghty after Moscow Flyer’s brilliant win in the Champion Chase and although he would have been helped by the falls to Tuitchev and then both Latalomne and Seebald at the second last, I still don’t think he would have been beaten had they all stayed on their feet.
But Moscow Flyer is set to be around for another couple of years yet and as I said yesterday it will be some battle next year if he meets Azertyuiop in this renewal. That would be the only horse that looks like preventing him from becoming one of the real legends of the Festival.
You have to feel sorry for Latalomne’s jockey Vinnie Keane, though.
They say lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place but it did for him for the second year in-a-row. He was gutted.
