Gold Cup Form Guide

The Cheltenham Gold Cup is quite simply the be all and end all for staying chasers. In this division of the sport’s elite, no horse is truly considered a great until they’ve come to Cheltenham in March and won the Gold Cup. A horse could win every Grade 1 chase over 3 miles in Britain and Ireland their career but the harsh reality is that unless they make their way to Cheltenham on that Friday in March and win, they won’t be remembered as a great staying chaser.

Other prestigious prizes such as the King George, the Hennessy, and the Lexus are wonderful races in their own right but all serve one fundamental purpose as preparation towards the Gold Cup.

Luckily for us, these races can give us plenty of clues in the build-up to the big race, but this year, the contrast in the form coming from the races is startling…

The Hennessy Gold Cup (Newbury, November 29th)

The Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury in November is interesting preparation for a Gold Cup as it’s the only one of these races to be run over the Gold Cup trip of 3m 2½f. The form from this race so far has been superb – winner Many Clouds and 5^th Smad Place went on to come 1^st and 2^nd in the BetBright Chase on trials day at Cheltenham, beating Grade 1 festival winner Dynaste in doing so. 

Many Clouds won the Hennessy Gold Cup last November

Runner-up Houblon Des Obeaux has come 2^nd in both subsequent starts, first with The Young Master beating him to complete a four-timer, and then coming closest to the hugely impressive Coneygree in a Grade 2 field full of horses which had contested Grade 1’s. In 3^rd behind Houblon Des Obeaux was Hennessy 6^th Unioniste, who won a £31k handicap at Sandown in between these two runs.

Merry King (4^th) ran no race at all in the Betfair Hurdle last weekend which was surprising, with The Druids Nephew (7^th), Wychwoods Brook and Fingal Bay (both pulled up) also failing to place on their sole subsequent starts. A massive boost was given to the Hennessy form by Djakadam in 8^th, however, who went on to win the Grade 1 Thyestes Chase at Gowran on his next start. Monbeg Dude (4th) has placed on both of his subsequent starts, both in graded contests.

Of the other pulled up horses, Le Reve came 3^rd in a listed handicap and won a class 2 on her two subsequent starts, Annacotty won a Grade 3 next time out at Cheltenham and Triolo DAlene finished 3^rd on his next start (behind Unioniste). Vino Grigio and Via Sundown haven’t achieved anything with combined post-Hennessy form of 6PU0P but this takes nothing away from the magnificent form coming from the race.

Overall Record: 22 subsequent runs – 5 wins – 7 places
Finishers Record: 11 subsequent runs – 3 wins – 5 places
In Grade 1’s: 1-1-0
In Grade 2’s: 4-1-2
In Grade 3’s: 3-1-2

Summary: The form coming from this year’s Hennessy at Newbury is simply outstanding, and we should definitely keep an eye on the horses from the race which haven’t run since (Midnight Prayer who was 9^th and Ballynagour, Rocky Creek and What A Warrior, all of whom were pulled up). More importantly, though, we need to keep an eye on these runners for the Gold Cup and treat the Hennessy as very strong Gold Cup form.

The King George VI Chase (Kempton, December 26th)

Arguably the second most prestigious chase of the calendar behind the Gold Cup, this is a natural stepping stone for a classy staying chaser on the way to potential Gold Cup glory. It’s a very different race, run over 3m on a flat track, but it’s always a massive piece of the Gold Cup jigsaw.

Silviniaco Conti won his second King George on Boxing Day

Most of this year’s King George runners haven’t been out again – winner Silviniaco Conti will head straight to the Gold Cup and 3^rd Al Ferof is out for the season with an injury – but those who have had a run have failed to impress.

Dynaste ran in the BetBright Cup Chase at Trials Weekend at Cheltenham and with two Grade 1 wins and a King George 2^nd to his name, he went off 5/2 favourite in the field of 6. He was beaten into 3^rd, however by two Hennessy runners – winner Many Clouds who won the BetBright Cup despite carrying 4lb more than he had done in the Hennessy, and Smad Place who came 5^th in the Hennessy.

The other two horses to have run since the King George are 4^th Champagne Fever, and Double Ross who pulled up in the King George. Champagne Fever was leading in a tough battle with Don Cossack in a Grade 2 2m 4f Chase at Thurles last month when he fell at the last and left Gordon Elliott’s charge to win, 44 lengths ahead of Texas Jack in 2^nd. He then went on to win a Grade 2 at Gowran over 2m 4f.

Double Ross ran in the Grade 2 Denman Chase at Newbury and faced some good horses but that’s no excuse for how he never travelled, never got involved and finished last, about 20 lengths behind the winner.

What’s really interesting is that (assuming that Dynaste was going to go to the Ryanair as David Pipe had suggested before injury ruled him out for the remainder of the season) of the 9 horses to come home behind Silviniaco Conti in the King George, none are deemed fit to run in the Gold Cup. Champagne Fever is expected to go in the Champion Chase over just 2 miles unless he taken the Ryanair route, a race which all of the other runners also hold entries for. The Ryanair is a Grade 1 chase run over 5 furlongs less than the Gold Cup, and it really looks like this year’s King George was full of non-stayers.

Silviniaco Conti may have been impressive in winning the King George, but there’s no denying that he won it from a bunch of horses who are a lot better over a shorter trip – that’s not the type of horse he’ll have to beat when the Gold Cup comes around.

Overall Record: 4 subsequent runs – 1 win – 0 places
Finishers Record: 3 subsequent runs – 1 win – 0 places
In Grade 1’s: 0-0-0
In Grade 2’s: 4-1-0
In Grade 3’s: 0-0-0

Lexus Chase (Leopardstown, December 28th)

The Lexus Chase is also a very different race to the Gold Cup in that like the King George it’s run on a flat track over 3 miles. But, like the King George, it is a natural progression for a horse to head towards the Gold Cup after winning the Lexus.

Road To Riches won the Lexus just days after the King George

The Lexus is strongly linked with the Irish Hennessy which is run at the same track over the same distance for the same horses just over a month later. For this reason, it’s not much use to us looking at the figures in the same way as we did for the other two races, as all six subsequent runs were one race. Lexus winner Road To Riches hasn’t been seen since and is Gold Cup-bound, 2^nd On His Own came 6^th in the Hennessy, 4^th Boston Bob finished 4^th again, 5^th Carlingford Lough won the Hennessy, 6^th First Lieutenant came 8^th, 7^th Lord Windermere came 3^rd and Home Farm, who fell in the Lexus, finished 7^th in the Irish Hennessy.

So, two horses improved their finishing positions (from 5^th to 1^st and from 7^th to 3^rd), two did worse (from 2^nd to 6^th and from 6^th to 8^th), Boston Bob stayed in 4^th and Home Farm stayed on his feet.

It’s difficult to know what to take from this, yes, but what we can see is that at least two thirds of the 9 Lexus runners are being aimed at the Gold Cup. Road To Riches beat Gold Cup contenders (and two past Gold Cup winners) to win the Lexus, while Silviniaco Conti beat non-stayers. Yet for the Gold Cup, Silviniaco Conti is as short as 11/4 in places while Road To Riches and Many Clouds can both be easily backed at 9/1 – interesting to say the least.