No Irish Gold For Riches, Silver Shines In Scotland
Noel Meade’s Road To Riches ran a blinder to finish a close third in last year’s Gold Cup. The nine-year-old put his credentials for the 2016 version to the test in the Irish Gold Cup on Saturday. To prove he merited his place in the top dozen in the betting for the Cheltenham contest, he really needed to win this race with authority. Sent off as the 5/4f he could manage only second to the defending champion, Carlingford Lough. Road To Riches may have paid for tracking the fast pace and the ground may also have been against him, but this nevertheless must go down as a distinctly underwhelming run. Coral reacted by pushing the Gigginstown runner out to 16/1 from 12/1 for the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
The disappointment of this performance is perhaps best illustrated by the fact the eventual 12 length winner of this race, Carlingford Lough, is by no means deemed certain to even take part in the Cheltenham Showpiece having disappointed there last year. That’s not to take anything away from Carlingford Lough who became the first horse to win this in successive years since Beef Or Salmon in 2006-2007. At 79 years old now his trainer John Kiely still knows how to get one ready for the big day.
Perhaps the one horse to take out of the race with regards to the Gold Cup is a runner who didn’t quite manage to complete the course. Willie Mullins already saddles three of the first four in the Gold Cup betting and appeared to strengthen his hand still further with the performance of Valseur Lido here. The mount of Ruby Walsh travelled sweetly through the race, and appeared to be about to hit the front with plenty left in the tank before dumping his rider to the turf at the final fence. Sky Bet go 20/1 from 40/1 about this son of Anzillero winning the Gold Cup.
Meanwhile up at Musselbrugh on Sunday the track played host to one of its biggest meetings of the year. The six race card featured trials for the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, Triumph Hurdle and Albert Bartlett, the Scottish versions of the Champion Chase, Champion Hurdle and County Hurdle and a qualifier for the Pertemps Final at the Festival.
The performance of the day came from Tommy Silver in the Triumph Hurdle Trial. Beaten only a length on debut by the excellent Fixe Le Kap, Paul Nicholls’ youngster appeared to take another step in the right direction here. Quite how good his rivals were here is open to debate but he could do more than post an impressive 11 length victory. Bet365 were sufficiently impressed to cut him to 14/1 from 25/1 for the Triumph.
One horse to run here did ascend to favouritism for a Cheltenham contest on the back of his performance. J P McManus likes nothing more than a festival winner and his Cup Final will get into the Pertemps Final now, following his win in the qualifier here. The seven-year-old managed to take this event off a career high mark despite not having run for over a year. Having only had the seven career starts, there may well be more to come and he looks a live threat for the big Festival handicap. BetVictor make him their 10/1 favourite.
