Paddy Power Gold Cup at Cheltenham

The second day of Cheltenham´s Open meeting has an excellent card with six extremely strong races. Main event is the valuable Paddy Power Gold Cup, a handicap chase over just over 2 1/2 miles at 15.35 CET with 19 runners. It is a very classy field and we shall be seeing some of the runners in the top events later in the season. There is a clear favourite here Grands Crus (David Pipe/ Tom Scudamore), and although the race is very competitive, he really does look a good thing, although we would not consider him good value at odds of around 9-4; if he goes out to 3-1 he would be worth a decent bet. He was a top novice last season, and a top staying hurdler the year before, and although he ran below form when only 4th when hot favourite for RSA Chase at the Festival here in March, he was apparently not right that day. If one takes that form literally then Walkon (Alan King/ Robert Thornton) is handicapped to beat him now, but we do n not really believe that.

More dangerous could be Nicky Henderson´s 3 runners, and although stable jockey Barry Geraghty rides Triolo d´Aleno, we think that Nadiya de la Vega (Tony McCoy) and Quantativeeasing (Andrew Tinkler) could be the main stable hopes. The much-improved Hunt Ball (Kieran Burke/ Nick Scholfield) won 7 races last year and has shot up the weights, but his owner has reportedly backed him to win a fortune today (and to go on to win the Gold Cup!), so must be taken seriously. Paul Nicholls´ 3 runners Poquelin (Harry Derham), Al Ferof (Ruby Walsh) and Aerial (Daryl Jacob) are also to be considered, but none appear to be very well handicapped. Grands Crus is strongly fancied by the Pipe stable - who have a good record in this race - and he is clearly the one to beat.

The opening Grade Two hurdle for 3yo´s is by far the best juvenile hurdle of the season so far, with several top prospects from the leading stables, Mcvicar (Alan King/ Thornton), Far West (Nicholls/ Walsh) and Vasco du Ronceray (Henderson/ Geraghty) for example. This race is better watched, but we shall go along with Far West, who is by the top French stallion Poliglote.

Nicholls and Walsh also have a good chance of taking the novice chase at 14.20 with Sire Collonges, who faces a strong challenge from the three Irish runners Sea of Thunder (Charlie Byrnes/ McCoy), Sraid Padraig (Tony Martin/ Aidan Coleman) and White Star Line (Dessie Hughes/ Geraghty). Sire Collonges won a similar race over this CD at the October meeting from Sea of Thunder, with White Star Line pulled up after mistakes, but there may not be much in it this time.

The handicap chase over almost 3 1/2 miles azt 14.55 is another very open race. We shall go for two outsíders here, Mon Mome (Venetia Williams/ Liam Treadwell) and Fredo (Ian Williams/ Harry Skelton). The latter won the Grand National in 2009 and was third in the Gold Cup a year later. he can no longer be measured by that form, but has come down a lot in the weights and his stable is in great form. Fredo has a German pedigree and is by Lomitas; he is one of our favourite horses and is always capable of popping up at a good price in thes staying handicaps.