should be at least half the price in gold cup,

mepoor
Totally agree, this is by far the best ew bet of the whole festival!!!!
Afterall he does get a place everytime he runs and hes won a couple of little tin pot races over the last 3 years and has festival form figures of 313 so those who say festival form is everyhing get your 2-1 a place it cant last forever...

Just can't really get last years run out of my head. I backed him and he was there after the last, I expected him to scoot up from there but he didn't even get past The Giant Bolster. Could have been an off day but his form the previous race not really fantastic has Burton was well beaten in GC and got beat in a very weak grade race at Aintree also.

He will be in first 3 if the ground is soft imo.
Otherwise not for me at all.

Alex
Bobs worth nailed on in an average year?
So i take it not many of the last 10 have been average?, Could you really see him beating a Kicking king, Best mate, Denman, Kauto star or even Imperial commander in their prime?
Good horse yes but still plenty to prove against top class opponents!!!!!

Have to agree with the OP.

Long Run is a good shout depending how he came out of that tough KGeorge - certainly eway so you have to shorten it up or its a gimme for the eway thieves. 

You could throw a blanket over them in the Lexus .... I don't see why that is such great form, you can spin it any way you want but Tidal Bay won who may well go to the Stayers Hurdle!

ok not nailed on but as duffy said, he is toptop class and imo the best over 3m at chelt, is he the best over 3m2 is for us to decide...

why does people point to the bad run in finishing third in gold cup, if he was alittle below par that day it was some run.i watched long run jump some of those fences at kempton in last run and he flew over them like 2 mile chaser,and they ended up out like washing,so if hes back on form which winning any king george should say he is in good form at least he should be worthy favourite.
ever horse has bad runs in career but his seem to be in top class races when he just finishes placed.so i still think if he runs to his form he will  bang there  and at just turned 8 should be in his prime,he could be burnt out thats what every one thinks or he woudnt be that price but you dont win king georges burnt out thats a fact.

I think you're putting too much emphasis on the names of those races mepoor. He was third in the Gold Cup yes, but the bare form is nothing to write home about.

'Winning any King George' could mean absolutely nothing depending on the horses who run. I think you are putting too much emphasis on the race titles as opposed to the actual form.

His King George run was better than his Gold Cup, granted, but I strongly believe the cheek pieces will need to work serious magic if he's to regain the Gold Cup in what looks a much stronger renewal on paper.

i understand what your saying but not any horse wins a king george for start,secondly bobs worth beat the same horse he beat in  rsa last year in hennessy which would possibly mean that race is now going to be a top notch gold cup form with the third franking form and second i just dont see any they two races being better than long runs,he won gold cup after winning king george with two good perfromances,he got beat last year yes maybe he needed rest and had of day, but he then comes out obviously needing race and gets beat with silver conti thats fine first race, then wins king george again thats top form in anyones book, and over all is deff the best form in this race with out any doubt, yes the rest are coming to take him on and young improvers,but i honestly beleive henderson and the  team left some more on him at kempton and he will improve again and if he does improve for the run and a good rest i think he could come there cruising i really do and win this easy,  so in my opinion he is out standing value for a win.if he does win they will say it was poor race, but i would say 2 gold cups 2 king georges and just turned 8 hes some horse, i remember when he won his first one 2 years ago they said he was just a baby still growing so might take couple of runs to get him to peak. and if thats case  he only needs to stay on feet to win.

Could we possibly not be over looking one in this? I have not played a single penny on anything in this race yet, (surprising myself here lol ) but hows about's CAPTAIN CHRIS He ran an absolute cracker in the KG and am pretty sure, if they ran the race again, CC is the winner of that KG! SWC wont be getting away with just letting LR pop the last 2 fences in the GC and if CC is up there again battling in the CGC am could we not have a turn around no

Yeah i get what your saying but as i stated above, will he be getting away with such errors in this years CGC At the prices, CC is better imo. 25/1 now, imo should be closer to 16s area at this stage! And im not the greatest fan of the irish raiders in this either tbf i think they have it to prove as is often the case i think fleminstar may prove to be the next florida pearl, top class but always found wanting in the CGC and SDC just not quite good enough. Bobs worth very worthy fav, but then your left with Silv conti, which i would give a squeak to but should be double those odds on what hes achieved.
I have left the race well alone as i struggle to make real reasons to back anything. I missed the 9/2 about bobs as i decided to wait until after the lexus was run, something i regret but hey ho thats life.

sea
So how do you still not have LR as value, you clearly fancy a horse that was beaten by him,a horse that for 2 years only has form going the other way round.
Do you really think 9/2 about BW would have made you bet but 7/2 doesnt? Reading all the comments on here (on other threads) nobody likes SC (finished in front of BW) Grand Crus alot to prove after op (finished in front of BW) FL doesnt stay (not far behind BW) Tidal bay gave it a few pounds and closed on the run in (not far behind BW).
Yes it has very strong course form and will stay but just seems far to short with those wholes picked in the form, I'm prepared for the egg on face but should this really be such a strong GC fav??

How many regain King George??
Not a valid argument.Has to have more chance than CC its a better horse

Ok yawn a bit strong i apologise and i am not in anyways saying CC will finish in front of LR but given the proximity of them at the finish line in the KG and Chelters being a very different course i would rather be on the 25/1er than the 7/1er. I am not as already stated though have not completely decided what im doing in this.

they still keep saying stats say he cant win, thats my whole point of this thread, there no stats for a horse his age trying to win a gold cup or regain it i should say after just winning a KING GEORGE  no horse has ever atempted it. the last 6 yer old to win a gold cup was mill house and he was beaten by arkle the following year then had back problems, this horse just won a king george again there is nothing wrong with him, ok he might get beat for what ever reason, but on what he has achieved and how he is currently he should be fav. if what i think is correct and this horse is fine in his self coming the day he could be the best priced former gold cup winner  by a mile.puting it other way if he wins i wont rate him as  breaking stats i will exspect him to possible win both races next year again .as for captain chris he was coming from long way back in king george as long run was only one staying on out all front pacers showing his class, yet idoled in front in what was gruelling race then just picked up again once was headed.
there was only a little frieght that long run was collared by pace of race, but in gold cup when there burnt of one by one there no way captain chris would make that up in any gold cup.long run has the quality for every thing you need in gold cup, pace,stamina,class,every one goes on about his jumping hes a 3 miler they do make odd
mistake but some of his jumping is breath taking,and they also go on about jockey also i would deff not wish any one else on it now, he knows what to do, when to do it,and knows the horse.when hes hugging it a yard after line ,they will  say class actand hes only 8.

^ That depends on your assessment of what it will take to win this year's race. I'm far from convinced that it will need a 180 performance to win it. People often mistake how competitive a race is for it being a good renewal.

As a few will know, I think Bobs is a rotten price, and am very cautious as to the strength of his form. Yes it was franked by Tidal Bay winning the Lexus, but it's perfectly plausible that Sir Des Champs ran nowhere near his best after jumping stickily and racing lazily, and then you have the same old warrior in First Lieutenant and a potential non-stayer in Flemenstar. I know this is a potentially coloured view, but as Wellchief and a few others have alluded to, Bobs is a shortish favourite on the back of one win in open company in which he beat Tidal Bay (getting weight), and First Lieutenant. Again. Who again didn't really look like he stayed.

I think Long Run's form is considerably stronger than Bobs' and the prices are wrong. Not knocking Bobs at all, but do think the price is very skinny. I am yet to be convinced that he is top class and will be backing Long Run to beat him in a match bet, as well as Silviniaco Conti outright, who is my idea of the winner.

Good points tom.

^ Seriously, everyone seems to have already given Bobs the title!

Would you not have expected him to beat Tidal Bay getting weight at Newbury? A lot of people are banking on Tidal Bay running to very high marks to suit their positions, but there is every chance he is still shy of Gold Cup class, in which case his formlines are being over-valued. Seems slightly odd to me (and I'm a big fan of the horse) that Nicholls has transformed him to the extent that he's basically the best chaser in the Gold Cup field at the age of 12. People love to hate Howard Johnson but he trained enough Festival winners not to be a total mug.

First Lieutenant is another forum darling but from what I can see he looks just below the very highest class and doesn't win very often. Bobs keeps beating him, so it gets a bit much when he is continually used as the marker that proves how great Bobs is. It's almost like a Hurricane Fly and Solwhit argument, when we never really knew how good Solwhit was.

As I said above, Bobs is clearly a very good horse and he loves Cheltenham, so it's easy to see why people are backing him, but it's not as though there isn't a young horse in his own stable that has achieved considerably more, and is on offer at a much bigger price. And people don't even really fancy him!

Fair enough... poor choice of words. He has been transformed to some degree, but do people think he is actually running to marks in the low to mid 170s as a 12-year-old? I am not convinced, and that is why I question just how good Bobs has actually shown himself to be.