King hoping for Cheltenham power

Alan King has his fingers crossed that Tarotino will be cherry-ripe for his first run of the season in Saturday’s Paddy Power Gold Cup at Cheltenham.

The seven-year-old won his final three starts as a novice last season, notching an 18-length victory at Bangor his last outing.

King’s horses have tended to need their first outing this term but he is quietly confident Tarotino will be tuned up.

“He’s had an uninterrupted preperation. He worked this morning and he’s due to school tomorrow morning but the one thing I don’t want is too much rain,” said King.

“He could be well handicapped. He was very impressive at Bangor in the spring but it wasn’t the strongest race and he went up a fair bit for it.

“It was always the plan to give him a break and come here first time so we’ll see what happens.

“I’m very happy with his general condition for this. I’ll have him as near (to peak fitness) as I can. He’s quite a buzzy horse anyway, so he might be a little bit straighter than some have been,” he told At The Races.