Harry team building for Gold Cup date
The eight-year-old, owned by the Paul Duffy Diamond Partnership, was put away for the Festival by trainer Nick Williams after winning the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury in November.
“He’s fine and we’ve saved him for the race as he’s always better fresh,” said Duffy.
“We thought about it (running again) after the Hennessy, but we soon concluded we wanted to save him so we are gearing him up for Cheltenham.
“His training regime is being geared precisely for that.
“We haven’t got anything like a racecourse gallop planned at the moment. It’s a thought and it’s something we have discussed, but Nick has got his own way of getting a horse ready.
“He’s building up to the race and we’re keeping our fingers crossed.
“I was at Kempton for the King George and thought Long Run was fantastic. He jumped well and was a worthy winner, though we understand Kauto Star wasn’t quite right.
“It’s going to be a very competitive Gold Cup with lots of interesting horses in there. The betting recognises the chances of each horse and we go there with a chance as good as anybody.”
Meanwhile, Neil Mulholland plans to give Midnight Chase a racecourse gallop as part of his preparation for the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup.
The Devon trainer reports everything to be going smoothly since Midnight Chase completed a hat-trick of victories at Cheltenham this term in December.
“Midnight Chase is perfect. He’s in super form and fingers crossed he remains that way,” said Mulholland.
“He’ll have a racecourse gallop about 10 days before the race to have a good blow-out and then he’ll be spot-on.”
