Hennessy Gold Cup day at Newbury

the Newbury card today is one of the best of the season, with the Hennessy Gold Cup, a handicap chase over 3 1/4 miles at 16.10 CET, the main feature. With 18 runners this is its usual difficult puzzle for punters and one has to start with Paul Nicholls´ 3 runners- top-weight Neptune Collonges (Harry Derham), Aiteen Thirtythree (Ruby Walsh) and Michel le Bon (Noel Fehily) representing the champion who has taken this race twice recently with Denman. Ruby ´s choice automatically makes 1833 the favourite, but we are not totally convinced, while Michel le Bon is very lightly raced and has not run for 2 years. We would not be at all urprised to see Neptune Collonges come out best of this trio, even though he has to concede lumps of weight all round. He is a class act and has run in the last 4 Gold Cups at Cheltenham, twice finishing in the money. However he is well held on Scottish Grand National form by Beshabar (Tim Vaughan/ Aidan Coleman), who has not run since then and is stil l on what looks a decent weight. Stamina could well be an important factor here, with several runners unproven at the distance, notably Paddy Power Gold Cup winner Great Endeavour (David Pipe/ Timmy Murphy), now running over 3/4 mile further. He is officially 6 lbs well in at the weight, but we do not believe he will get the trip. The race looks certain to be run at a strong pace with several front-runners in the field, among them Carruthers (Mark Bradstock/ Mattie Batchelor), who needs softer ground, and German-bred Fair Along (Philip Hobbs/ Nina Carberry), who is possibly better over hurdles. Hobbs also runs Planet of Sound /Richard Johnson) and Balthazar King (Giles Hawkins), of which the former is certainly the stable´s main hope. Also heavily backed this week have been Wayward Prince (Ian Williams/ Dougie Costello) and Wymott (Donald McCain/ Graham Lee). There are at least a dozen possible winners here, but we shall go with Beshabar, while Neptune Collonges could be wor th a small each-way bet at the likely prices.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Earth Planet - Horsham Lad - Battlecry
2. Race: Prospect Wells - All The Aces - Carrigmorna King
3. Race: Master Fiddle - Made In Time - Iron Chancellor
4. Race: Empire Levant - Rock On Ruby - Titan De Sarti
5. Race: Big Buck`S - Sparky May - Duc De Regniere
6. Race: Aiteen Thirtythree - Great Endeavour - Wymott
7. Race: Fistral Beach - Hector`S Choice - Coup Royale