Another nice prep from TDS for the GC today!
If they can brush his jumping up he will be a serious horse

With last years top staying novices chase form not exactly looking like there were any superstars I think last years race may still be very relevant.

Obviously much depends on the ground but Lord Windermere clearly loves the track and the way these Cheltenham Festival races pan out, so if he gets good ground he looks very over priced at 25/1 at this stage.

Sounds like Le Bec did a leg today, Retired sadly

all over twitter ^^

Well, first time we have seen half decent staying chasers out this weekend, and only Road to Riches appeals as potential GC winning material for me. But must be a fair ? about 3m2f I would think, but very impressive he was.
Menorah was quiet impressive as well but just cannot see him winning a gold Cup,and those smashed behind him? no thanks.
I do think SConti will still pose a major threat at Kempton as he improved a lot from his 1st run last season,and we know hes a lot better than that yesterday,but hes a flat track horse....aint he??
TDS aint 3m2 imo, and will surely be a Ryanair horse.
Only other horse I might consider for the GC is TGB,who just happens to keep running big races in it!!

Noticed TGB was without a visor yesterday, not sure whether this is going to be one vital piece of equipment (along with the hood) to get this horse moving!
I think I'd take a change with him when the visor returns and he's running back at chelt

Oh Boston Bob defo needed the run. Mullins said in his rp stable tour that he might need another prep run before the Lexus. Probably best to judge him on the Lexus

Boston Bob. A ten year old who has never won at Cheltenham. Gold Cup ? Not for me.

Completely agree he looked like winning the RSA that year. BUT. He was 8 and then the following year they put him in Ryanair. Says to me the team behind BB don't actually believe he is a Gold Cup horse. Nor do I.

a pleasing performance from shutthefrontdoor today who " fingers crossed can carry on progressing ,ran off a mark of 151 and won easily enough and would probably prefer a few furlongs more , ok he didn't beat much but it was encouraging that the atr report said he had so much left in the tank that he jumped out of barrys hands at the last ! racing manager frank berry said "youd have to be pleased how he did that especially as he showed he can handle testing conditions ,we hadn't made any plans before today we just wanted to get this out of the way first ,he is a horse with plenty of options "............
my take on it is this horse was being touted as a national horse and he may well be but the fact they started him off in this race and avoided a return to hurdles to preserve a mark hints at they may well fancy a gold cup campaign and as stated before a lot to like , a progressive profile ,jumps well ,lightly raced and excellent wins to runs ratio , significantly this fella was only beaten just over 3  lengths by stablemate and current gold cup fav holywell on only his 5th race over hurdles  in a handicap hurdle at the previous years  Cheltenham festival  giving that horse 4 pounds . the big prices have gone but still available around 33 or 25s some books.......... and still attractive given  his progressive profile and connections .
.as said earlier in thread think fingal bay is too big at around 50s on here for the gold cup ..................good luck !

Shutthefrontdoor heads to the Lexus next. Connections must feel he is better than a handicapper too Foyles. Good Luck.

cue card nearly fav !!!

he goes ^^^^^

I had you down as an 'entire' Howdi.

You live and learn!

Sorry I missed the paragraph in the opening post about CF. Good to see him get a favourable mention in the write-up. I would also be scratching my head as regards the Arkle. I would maintain he was the best horse in the race but a combination of leading an Arkle at a fast pace and Western Warhorse probably running the race of his life and finding momentum from somewhere in the straight probably beat CF. In hindsight it might not be a bad thing as it probably means there's still doubters to keep the price a little generous!

I would not be terribly put off if got beat in the King George either. He's 112 at Cheltenham and he finds an extra gear up the hill plus good ground is what he needs. If he did get beat though I would hope it would not lead to him being rerouted to the Ryanair.

The first place I look for pointers to Cheltenham Championship races is the result from last year. The winner was Lord Windermere so he has to be top of the list of contenders until there is evidence that he is either not sound or has a string of poor results. At the moment he is entered in the Punchestown Chase over 2.5 miles. Jim Cullotty is for ever associated with Best Mate and it will be no surprise if he follows a similar strategy to that employed by Hen Knight. That will mean one or two runs in races that will bring him back to his best in March with as little stress as possible. I accept all of the doubts over the form from last year, but the third and fourth horses had desperately hard races and neither may ever fully recover from that. So for me, the most likely winner is Lord Windermere but don't expect to see him do anything spectacular before the big day.

That's interesting Sage.  I'm opposite to you when it comes to the Gold Cup. Only Best Mate has won it back to back since 1971 so straight away out goes Lord Windermere.  If he wins so be it but the system Best Mate apart has stood up for 40+ years.  Bobsworth out too as only Kauto Star has ever regained the crown.  It obviously takes loads out of them winning this race.

I don't think it's enough to say that winning the race takes a lot out of them, even running in it is a massive negative for me. It's not a standard 3m chase, it's over more than 3 1/4 miles on an undulating track at a championship pace. A unique test.
Job one for me is always to put a line through any horse that has run in it before, as I don't think they're capable of going through with it again. Yes, they might pick up nice pots along the way, King Georges, Betfair's, Lexus's - but they're easier races. Obviously there will always be exceptions to this rule, Best Mate and Kauto Star being a couple in the last dozen years, but those boys were freaks and amongst the greatest chasers ever to line up in the race.
Even including them, if you'd spent that last twenty years laying every horse that had ever run in the race before, you would be miles in front by now.

I can see where you are coming from but would still prefer LW to any of those who finished behind him and so far,I have not been impressed by anything that didn't run in either of the last 2 Gold Cups.