Ruby backs A Plus Tard to give Rachael golden moment
MINELLA INDO and Jack Kennedy win for owner Barry Maloney and trainer Henry de Bromhead with runner up A PLUS TARD with grooms Zoe Smalley and Jason Dunphy.
Ruby Walsh is confident A Plus Tard will strike gold for Rachael Blackmore year in Friday’s Festival highlight.
Although she lit up last year’s Festival, the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup brought agony for Blackmore as Minella Indo, a horse the Tipperary jockey could have ridden, outstayed his stablemate up the famous hill.
However, Walsh, the most successful jockey in Cheltenham Festival history, believes A Plus Tard will get his revenge this week, arguing the race could set up perfectly for the Henry De Bromhead-trained eight-year-old.
Analysing the blue riband with racing correspondent Tommy Lyons, former jockey turned pundit Mick Fitzgerald, and Racing TV’s Gary O’Brien in an videocast Festival preview, Walsh explained his thought process.
“You’ve three really strong stayers in Minella Indo, Galvin, and A Plus Tard and you don’t have a massive amount of pace.
“I loved A Plus Tard at Haydock, I think everything went wrong at Christmas (when he was just touched off by Galvin the Savills Chase at Leopardstown), and I think he’s just had a sounder season than Minella Indo. That’s why I’d be siding with him of Henry’s two. There’s no frontrunner here so I think this race could tactically set up for A Plus Tard.”
Like the columnist, O’Brien believes A Plus Tard is the one to beat in the Gold Cup.
“He’s by far the most likely winner,” O’Brien said. “He ran a belter in it last year. If he had jumped a little bit better over the final few fences it could have been different.
“He was brilliant at Haydock on his seasonal return and he was the best horse in the race at Christmas even though Galvin ended up nutting him on the line. If he turns up in peak form I think he’s going to be very difficult to beat.”
O’Brien hopes to see Conflated up against him. Gordon Elliott’s charge catapulted himself in the mix with a shock victory in the Irish Gold Cup at Leopardstown last month.
However, despite beating Minella Indo by six and a half lengths, connections are pondering running him in the Ryanair Chase instead of the Gold Cup, a possibility that baffles O’Brien.
“Conflated has his fair share of previous convictions but he has looked something of a reformed character,” O’Brien said. “He put a great performance to win a handicap at Navan under a big weight and it was the run in the Irish Gold Cup last time that was the real revelation. He just looks a different horse now and I can’t believe connections are considering running him in the Ryanair when he’s beaten the horse that won the Gold Cup at Cheltenham last year by six lengths at Leopardstown. Why would you not have a go?
“Everything adds up to him pitching up in this race and I’d be tempted to have a few quid each-way on him just because I think, along with Protektorat, he offers a bit of an X-factor, an unknown quantity in the race whereas we know where we stand with a lot of the other horses.”
Fitzgerald shares O’Brien’s view on the race Conflated should be running in.
“There’s only one Gold Cup and I think if he was mine, I’d let him take his chance in the race,” Fitzgerald said. “As Ruby has highlighted, there’s no real pace on here. It’ll be a decent-sized field, space will be at a premium, mistakes will be multiplied, and you could get caught out at the wrong time. What this horse has is a little bit of tactical pace, he could be really interesting.”
That said, Fitzgerald accepts Galvin is the more reliable Elliott-trained contender.
“Galvin is solid and I think that’s the reason he’s favourite. He’s been to the Cheltenham Festival a couple of times, he’s won a National Hunt Chase, he was second in a handicap, you know what you’re going to get with Galvin.”
Al Boum Photo fell short in his bid to complete a Gold Cup hat-trick when third last year and last month Willie Mullins admitted he wasn’t happy with the 10-year-old’s progress ahead of his bid to regain his crown.
The vibes have been more positive in recent weeks but Walsh is not overly positive about his prospects.
He said: “Al Boum Photo seems to be working well. I thought he was a great each-way price at 20-1 before Christmas. Do I think’s he as good value now at 10-1? No, I don’t.”
Nor is he particularly sweet on Tornado Flyer, a horse who sprang a surprise when winning the King George at Kempton on St Stephen’s Day.
“I think he was given a brilliant ride in the King George and ultimately ended up winning. I think Danny (Mullins) got the fractions spot-on and I’m not sure anybody else did. I thought that win was about the ride more so than the horse. I think he has to improve a little myself and he’s unproven at the trip as well.”
Fitzgerald was similarly lukewarm about the prospects of Chantry House, Nicky Henderson’s sole entry.
“The horse that won the Cotswold Chase will not win the Gold Cup. He needs to be better than that. He’s in very good form but he needs to up his game from what we saw of him in the Cotswold Chase. That was a very, very laboured performance.”
