So after 3 close but failed attempts, it would seem Willie Mullins will no longer be relying on Djakadam to be the main Gold Cup this year. You feel he deserves a crack at the Ryanair to see if he can get a much deserved Cheltenham win under his belt as there is zero chance he can make it 4th time lucky now. That moves us onto his other options…
For me THE stand out hope for connections in the race is Yorkhill. I’ve made my views clear many times elsewhere on the forum though (particularly the ‘Any Race’ thread) so I won’t go on again. All I will say once again though is that if they’d have stopped his season after that JLT run, given him the summer off then the Gold Cup would look 100% the race for him this year. He still has plenty of questions to answer on whether he can actually win the race (like quite a few) but it would be the logical target. I think particularly with how the race could be run with the likes of Might Bite in there, it could suit him down to the ground, but for now, until we know he’s at least staying chasing there’s little point in going into that.
Next up is the possibility of Douvan stepping up in trip. The yard have the horse who time after time beat the current Gold Cup winner with his eyes closed and although you can’t just take Douvan vs Sizing John over 2 miles and expect the same thing to happen in the Gold Cup, they must have been watching SJ last Spring and thinking what if…despite what they may say publicly I think they’d all be very confident they can beat SJ whatever the trip such was the gulf in class over 2 miles. Connections have often raised the possibility of the horse stepping up in trip and being a Gold Cup horse. Like archie mentioned on the Champion Chase thread, I also think Douvan is destined to run in this race. In an ideal world I want to see the head to head match up between Altior and Douvan this year, then next year they try the King George and Gold Cup but from connections point of view, you have to have the mindset of why wait (especially considering the misfortune Ricci has had in the last couple of seasons with his horses) If they see it being his aim. Douvan will be 8 at next years festival so really this year would be the ideal time to step him up. It’s into the complete unknown though on how he will do over the Gold Cup trip having never run further than 17F though. I have little doubt he’ll take it in his stride though and be right up there if he does go down this route.
Graham Wylie has 2 others that could and at one point in their careers looked to be future Gold Cup prospects in Belshill and Black Hercules, both at 66/1. The former put some of the doubts to bed he doesn’t act at the course in the RSA last year and did beat this years Galway Plate winner Balko des Flos convincingly on chase debut but even so looks like he has a long way to make up with the head of the market. He still finished 10 lengths behind the front 2 in that RSA and that was despite Might Bite’s antics, were it not for that it would have been much further. He could very line up here as a 2nd/3rd string and run his race but i’d be very surprised if he could turn the RSA form round. Black Hercules endured a nightmare season last year not looking anything like the same horse and one where they didn’t even bother taking him to any of the Spring Festivals. A year before that he was a comfortable winner of a 3m chase at Warwick in heavy ground and followed that by showing plenty of speed in winning the JLT. Festival form and stamina proven if they can suddenly get it all to click with the horse (he was showing good signs at home but never showed it on the racecourse according to Mullins) then he could be a wildcard. It would take a leap of faith to think they can get him back on the right track before you even think he needs to then improve another level to the head of the market.
From a personal point of view i’d LOVE to see Yorkhill go for this race with Douvan taking on Altior. If I was Mullins though, bearing in mind he has Min and Great Field for the CC and the Gold Cup is the race he wants to win most i’d target the Gold Cup for both and see how they both get on. Douvan comes over for the King George and Yorkhill takes in either the Lexus or Irish Gold Cup in February. If both were to win their respective races he likely has the front 2 in the market and has his best ever shot of winning the race he craves. The Ryanair would then lie in wait for either of them were they to falter…(cue more slamming of the Ryanair
). Good luck telling that plan to Ruby though...:highly_amused:
