Beef has not had meaty test

IF Beef Or Salmon never wins another race, he will owe connections nothing.

The ten-year-old has run in 29 National Hunt races, finished first in 14, eight of them Grade Ones, and his win and place prizemoney, by my reckoning, is in excess of €700,000.

He is, by any standards, a top class chaser and, yet, even in a moderate Gold Cup, the doubts persist about his ability to do the business in a short few weeks.