King may kick for Gold Cup

Tom Taaffe is leaning towards running his exciting Kicking King in the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup rather than the inaugural Daily Telegraph Chase at the Festival next month.

The Co Kildare-based handler will still wait until the first week of March before announcing a target for his King George VI Chase winner, but has been swayed by the running of the Aon Chase at Newbury last weekend.

Gold Cup hopefuls Strong Flow, Celestial Gold and Sir Rembrandt were overhauled by Farmer Jack in that Grade Two event, after which Taaffe told the Racing Post: “The Aon was a good race but I don’t think I saw anything to frighten Best Mate.

“As I’ve said before, we’ll sit and wait, but if Best Mate looks like the only one, then we’ll probably go there.”