Beef cold Gold Cup option
There are plenty who like to play that game, but for every wager that works out there have to be literally thousands that don’t.
Glancing down the list of the market-leaders for the Gold Cup you have to be forgiven for thinking-what a motley bunch.
It is almost inconceivable that Beef Or Salmon is either favourite or second favourite, depending on where you look. If you had suggested such a possibilty a short few weeks ago the men in the white coats would have been called into action.
But a decent performance in the Lexus Chase at Leopardstown and the defections of Kicking King, Best Mate and Trabolgan have seen him leap to the head of the class.
It emphasises just how moderate this Gold Cup has become. Even Beef Or Salmon’s most ardent fans will accept that the horse has gone to the Prestbury Park well three times and, for various reasons, failed to deliver.
One senior jockey I spoke to this week doesn’t rate Beef Or Salmon's chances at all. He said Leopardstown is the horse’s track.
He bases such reasoning on the fact there are really only two fences in the closing stages of races at the Dublin course. He believes that is perfect for Beef Or Salmon, whereas Cheltenham offers a stiffer challenge, particularly downhill before the straight.
That aside, however, there was so much to like about the way Beef Or Salmon jumped at Leopardstown, and pilot Paul Carberry thought it rode a decent race.
From the stands it didn’t appear as if there was a whole lot of pace on, but Carberry said afterwards you could form that impression looking at good horses travelling mainly on the bridle.
And the clock does nothing to discount Carberry’s view. In contrast, it seemed as if the earlier three mile novice chase, won in tremendous fashion by Southern Vic, was run at a decent lick.
But the time revealed that Beef Or Salmon covered the three miles over two seconds faster than Southern Vic.
* LOOKING back at Leopardstown, you would have to say that not many horses, besides those we already know about, emerged from the meeting with Cheltenham stamped all over them.
Southern Vic was brilliant when winning a novice chase and Nickname, arguably, even better in a beginners chase.
But both sets of connections were at pains to stress that their respective charges need soft ground, so that should have stopped any ante-post punter in his tracks!
Nickname slammed Our Ben by ten lengths and here’s one still trying to come to terms with that result.
You cope as best you can when the money goes west, but it is doubly difficult when you get beaten by a horse about which you had never even heard.
Our Ben seems to be very highly rated as a chaser in the Willie Mullins yard and the trainer indicated at Cork on Monday that he’s now pondering his next move.
The likelihood seems to be that Our Ben will run once more and then head for the Moriarty Chase at Leopardstown next month.
All going well he will then have the SunAlliance Novices Chase at Cheltenham firmly in his sights.
Brave Inca is an extraordinary horse. He had a savage hard race behind Solerina in the Hatton’s Grace at Fairyhouse and, in theory at least, it should have left its mark.
But, like Limestone Lad, he has an iron constitution and seems to get stronger for every tough battle in which he is involved.
Harchibald or no Harchibald it remains long odds-on that Brave Inca, Hardy Eustace or Feathard Lady will deliver us another Champion Hurdle. You’d imagine Arcalis is the only possible worry from across the water!
