good to see you put them off the scent cv there. they need reigning in, this lot.

You shod be CV , all big players imo. Add many clouds to that list I reckon you have the winner.

Forfeit stage at 12pm market will be suspended.

zippee

Holywell looked in good nick today, but wasn't fully wound up, more improvement to come I'd say.

Never seases to amaze me tho how the bookies shorten these horses for winning egg and spoon races!

I agree foyles but he wins a race where his nearest opponent is 17ib inferior at stupidly short odds and he gets chopped by 6 pts! I guess we now know he's fit and well which was in question only a week or two ago. 12/1 in two weeks time would be about where I would be at nrnb and he's single figures in some places!!

Boston Bob on the drift!

Bit harsh,he was going to beat last years winner in the RSA,imo.

I do think Boston Bob is on the decline a bit now though.

I've never been his biggest fan, but he's been beaten a total of almost 50 lengths this year, since his 2 G1 successes last year. Ruby picking On His Own last week was a statement as well.

There are a good few I'd pick before him for the Gold Cup.

Lol Well,have followed him since novice hurdle days,
thought he was gonna be really good,but in decline
seems to want 4 miles slowly?

very happy with the run from holywell. like i said before, as long as he showed signs of good form in prep, he'll be bang on for the GC. still think 10/1 is big, he's classy and unexposed still.

anybody else think that Sam Winner is worth a look at 33/1? course and distance should be no problem, and only beaten 3.5 lengths by Road to Riches last time out. With Road to Riches at 9/1 that makes Sam Winner a good bet at 33/1

no he won't. PFN will ramp it in his column.

Just looking at Silviniaco Conti - who would be my pick for the race - I wonder would he have the profile of a Gold Cup winner or how would he fit the trends?

I think the main thing people have against him is that he's had two chances at the race and failed in both. Coupled with the fact that 6/10 winners were second season novices and 3/10 were third season novices (Just trying to get a picture of the typical profile of a recent winner just there). The exception being Kauto Star in 2009. Silviniaco Conti is now in his third season out of novice company or a fourth season novice if you want to put it like that.

The likes of Road To Riches, Dkajadam, Many Clouds, Holywell, Smad Place & Carlingford Lough are all just out of novice company and all probably still improving (You can add in Coneygree into the list for the purpose of this discussion). I can see the sense in thinking that one or more of them will improve enough to beat SC. If you also take SC's two Cheltenham runs, you'd probably say he's not improving.

Saying all that I do fancy Silviniaco Conti, and if you are one of those people - like me - who is prepared to put what happened on the run-in last year down to freak occurence, it becomes much easier to fancy him. He's won each of the 3 G1 staying chases in the UK since and himself is arguably improving. 

Question for me is who's the best of last year's novices. I find it hard so hard to split them. It really is a classic case of the young pretenders taking on a very experienced rival.

those are races in names only.

Its wide open because they are just 165 horses and on the day one will excel.

It has been very weak for years now.

See how easily handicappers and novices have walked into contention.

At the moment im torn between  Silviniaco Conti who had the race won 150yds out last year, which he has improved on and a novice/handicapper.

Still reckon it is piss poor division.

Yes I agree there's also people will tell you the Champion Chase is weak with the injuries to the former and current champ, that the Champion Hurdle is a 3 runner race and that the World Hurdle is weak. They can't all be weak. Although in the case of the World Hurdle my guess would be it's not a vintage renewal but as you say time is the best indicator of that.

Just looking through the Gold Cup entries before and was amazed just how lightly raced Bobs Worth is for his age.

He's only had 10 chase starts, although admittedly a lot of them will have been very hard races.  Compare that to Carlingord Lough who has had 17, Road to Riches 10, Holywell 10 and Many Clouds 9.

I've only picked the last four out as these are the up and coming ones.  I'm not sure after 17 starts just how much more improvement Carlingford Lough has in him, and I do think he needs to improve based on beating Foxrock a length.

If people continually write off Lord Windermere's poor runs, then you have to do the same for Bob imo. He's now looking more and more like my each way play in the race, as he's been there and wore the T shirt.  The odds are that a lot of those between the 10/1 and 16/1 mark won't be as good as thought when push comes to the shove, so I'd like to have Bob on my side for the place angle.

AP McCoy – my last Festival

My final Cheltenham Festival as a jockey is now just three weeks away and I couldn’t be happier to say that Carlingford Lough will be my ride in the Betfred Cheltenham Gold Cup.
By AP McCoy
So long as trainer John Kiely and JP McManus are happy with his condition then I will be aboard him on March 13th.

Cheltenham this year will probably be a little emotional for me but hopefully I will enjoy it more than I ever have as it will be the last time I will be riding there. The Festival is very special and I got an amazing reaction over in Ireland on Hennessy day when winning on Carlingford Lough. That was every emotional for me and Cheltenham will be very much the same – it will be my last time so I am going to try and enjoy it as I will never be there as a jockey again.

As I said, Carlingford Lough will be my Gold Cup ride; he gave me a great feel winning the Irish Hennessy and I am very much looking forward to riding him in the Gold Cup, if he lines up. Gold Cup day is probably the most important day of the whole jumping year and I am hoping he has got a live chance.

People might look back to last year and point out he was only sixth in the RSA but he never really got into a rhythm and we saw more of what he was capable of when he won the Grade One at Punchestown. John Kiely has the horse in great shape and he is definitely going there with a chance.

My other possible ride was Holywell and he was right back to form at Kelso last Thursday. It wasn’t much of a race but he travelled well and jumped better as the race went on. The way the horse improves through this time of the year he is definitely a Gold Cup contender, that is for sure.

I still can't get over the price on Sam Winner, 33/1 is obscene. The only other horse I'm interested in is Holywell, I think 11/1 is still worth a bet