Racegoers Club column: Gold Cup could be race for the ages
This year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup could be one for the ages. It has all the ingredients to make it one of the most memorable for many years. If you asked me which are my most memorable Gold Cups, the two that immediately spring to mind are Desert Orchid in 1989 and Kauto Star vs Denman in 2008. Both of those are indelibly imprinted in my memory. They were nearly two decades apart and maybe we’re due another, 18 years after Denman’s demolition job on his stablemate and fiercest rival.
The King George is quite rightly regarded as a good source of future Gold Cup winners and there’s a very good chance that the latest edition may well have contained this year’s winner.
It would be wonderful if the image of the four main protagonists all in the air together, jumping the last at Kempton, is replicated at Prestbury Park on the second Friday in March.
The King George was a classic clash of the best of British taking on the best of the Irish. Representing the Brits were The Jukebox Man and Jango Baie. Representing the Irish were Gaelic Warrior and Banbridge. If all goes well – and fingers crossed it does – the two Brits will be turning up again at Cheltenham. But the Irish, with their incredible strength in depth, are likely to be represented by dual Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs and Fact To File. Fact To File was an also-ran in the King George, but he bounced back to form subsequently.
Galopin will be attempting to do what only Kauto Star has done before in regaining the Gold Cup after being beaten the year before. Fact To File would need to be supplemented but he is fully expected to be. Now he has shown he has the class and stamina to win an Irish Gold Cup, surely he must go for the big one, rather than bidding for a second Ryanair Chase.
The Irish pair have the Festival experience behind them, with five victories from eight appearances, whereas the British pair have just the one victory and a second from two appearances between them. However, the British pair have the younger legs and that has proved a significant advantage over recent years. Jango Baie is seven, The Jukebox Man is eight, Fact to File is nine and Galopin is the veteran at ten.
In the last five years, 116 out of the 139 races at the Cheltenham Festival were won by horses aged eight or under, leaving just 23 to the older brigade. However, the caveat is several of those 23 were previous Festival winners. If age is against the Irish duo, the fact that their prep run was at the Dublin Racing Festival (DRF) is a huge positive – 42 Festival winners in the last five years had their previous run at the DRF, but less than half of them won their prep race.
A case can be made for any of the four main stars. Will it be the younger legs of Jango Baie that proves decisive, or will The Jukebox Man give his hugely popular owner, Harry Redknapp, another day he will never forget? Could it be the proven class of Fact To File that wins the day, or will the experienced Galopin Des Champs roll back the years and regain his crown?
With such an open-looking race, there’s sure to be several other contenders too. But if the four I’ve featured jump the last in unison, it could be a Gold Cup for the ages.
I’m writing this a few weeks ahead of Gold Cup day, so I have my fingers firmly crossed that they all get there. Bring it on!