Gold Cup Meeting in Newbury

Newbury, Friday, Nov 25: The two-day Gold Cup Meeting at Newbury gets underway today with a seven-race programme centred around the Long Distance Hurdle (6th race/16.05pm/60,000 pounds/4876m).

Last run in the Liverpool Hurdle (Group 1) and third-placed Champ (Jonjo O`Neill Jr) and Thomas Darby (Sean Bowen), who came in just behind the Henderson charge, are two promising candidates for victory. The latter won last year`s fixture against, among others, Paisley Park (Aidan Coleman), who later also finished third in the Long Walk Hurdle (Group 1) behind the victorious champ. Proschema (Harry Skelton) won a Group 2 Hurdle in high style over Thomas Darby at Wetherby the previous month. Dashel Drasher (Rex Dingle) easily solved a matching task at Aintree about three weeks ago. Tea Clipper (Stan Sheppard) has a consistent run of form to his credit.