How will they run - Big names not seen 4 ages.....

or how many will say it worked for Best Mate the most prolific Gold Cup winner since Arkle.

Best Mate The most under rated horse of all Time 3 Gold Cup Wins on the bounce .... Dosent matter what it beat they were the best around at the time .....To run in 3 gold cups was A excellant Achievment winning them was Historic and Best Mate and Herietta have never and I assume never will be given the credit that all deserve  - 3 GOLD CUP WINS on the BOUNCE..... Amazing Trining performance

Only horse I've seen would have troubled him on GOOD festival ground in recent years is Denman.

(in form Denman)

They will run to the best of there ability at 100% peak fitness,trainers are not idiots and they are not going to send there best horses to the biggest race of there life undercooked,ignore the lack of a prep run,makes no difference,can get horses just as fit at home

That's why I hate the phrase 'so and so horse is a machine'

No it isn't.

Machines function day and night, wekk in week out. Horses are individuals. Some are stuffy requiring loads of work and racing. Some are brittle and can only give one performance a season seemingly. Some are spring horses, some are winter etc etc.

Getting to grips with a horses 'pattern' is one of the key aspects of punting IMO.

agreed Roger - Also any horse in training has a definate preference for a particular sort of ground,best examples

Norton Coin - Mr Frisk both loved fast ground
Master Oats - Carvills Hill heavy

I am of the opinion rightly or wrongly that if horse gets his ground he 10-20 lenghts better.
Flip side if he don't he 10-20 lengths worse

Assessing horses with little racing - novice hurdlers is probably hardest and only trainer and owner would know his preference

Also, some trainers (Twiston Davies a good example) believe their horses are there to be run, not sit around eating their heads off.

He's not got too shabby a festival record has he?

Wont be the 1st Either as predicted

The horse I think the lay off will affect least is Denman. He puts so much into his big races he looks totally shattered afterwards and needs plenty of time to recover, this allied to the fact that his first time out record in the Hennessey Gold Cup is great and his overall career record for 1st time out is 1111213 any break should not be a problem.