Cheltenham Gold Cup

We have had wonderful racing at Cheltenham so far, but today sees the best race of the whole meeting - the Gold Cup at 16.20 CET. 15 horses are entered, but it´s all about just two of them - Long Run (Nicky Henderson/ Sam Waley-Cohen), the 2011 winner, and Kauto Star (Paul Nicholls/ Ruby Walsh), now back to his brilliant best at the age of 12 and a past dual winner of this race.

Long Run is 5 years younger than his rival, but we don´t think that will make any difference - staying chasers can be fully effective at the age of 12 and Kauto Star´s two victories this season- both with Long Run behind- show that he is as good as ever. Some people feel that Long Run is a better stayer than Kauto Star, but we do not really believe this in view of Kauto Star´s fine record (including in this race). More troubling perhaps is the slight setback he suffered 3 weeks ago and the fact that the Nicholls stable has not been firing on all fronts this week. Nicky Henderson on the other hand has been setting new records and has had an astonishing run of success (with one of his stable lads reportedly having won over a million betting on the stable´s runners this week!). The fact that Long Run is ridden by an amateur (the son of the owner) is no disadvantage, as he knows the horse inside out, but his slightly suspect jumping could be a major problem.

we hope that on the big two wins, but there are plenty of possibilities if they run below form. Henderson´s second string Burton Point (Barry Geraghty) made an excellent comback from injury last month and is ridden by a jockey at the top of his game. Nicholl´s second string What a Friend (Daryl Jacob) could also run well, but he, like course specialist Midnight Chase (Neil Mulholland/ Dougie Costello) look well held on their form against the principals.The main danger to the favourites in our view is Irish challenger Quel Esprit (Willie Mullins/ Paul Townend)