Vautour moving towards favourite for the Gold Cup.

You forgot this quote in the same piece Cuthbert..... re Djakadam

Walsh is a fan of the seven-year-old's stamina, and added: "By God it was some performance from him. He's a big horse, although he doesn't look as big as he is - but he's over 17 hands.

"He was off the bridle three out but he never flinched, never flinched for a second. He's in very good nick and will definitely stay every yard of three and a quarter miles."

Bit of a headache for Walsh.

I think we both know which bit of the quote is more telling.

Not sure to be honest,think the mention of stamina is quiet telling re Djakadam.
Maybe if he had mentioned stamina re Vautour,but he didn't.Probably cos he aint sure.

Walsh has to ride Vautour, he has no option. His superlatives on the horse have been well reported. He would look a fool if he chose Djakadam as he would basically saying he thinks Vautour won't stay.

Maybe if he aint sure about Vautour staying he will choose Djakadam.
He would look a fool as well if Djakadam outstays Vautour.
Anyway,Will find out later in the week.

If Ruby confirms he is on board, I expect his price to be around 4.5

Would be very very surprised if he rides Vautour. He may think a lot of this horse but it doesn't necessarily follow that he sees him as a Gold Cup horse.

If Ruby doesn't ride Vautour I will eat my iPad!

You should drink lots of water with it

stand by to be very, very, suprised.

@racingpete on twitter quoted on Wednesday that walsh rides Vautour he works for turf tv if that means anything in this melting pot!

I cant see ruby not riding Vautour

Yes he has to ride Vautour.

Vautour is favourite now, (temporarily maybe).

I'll give up the game if Ruby doesn't ride Vautour.

CCM its a much better idea than eating ipads. I would expect him to ride Vautour myself.

Only way he won't ride Vautour in the GC is if it comes up soft or worse, in which case he will probably be re-routed to the Ryanair. I don't think the fall in price will be anywhere near as great as many imagine if/when Ruby is confirmed as its probably already factored into his price. I still think the bookmakers will be keen to take him on.

I think he will be 3/1 fav by Friday.

3 miles out what will he trade in running, I'm guessing evens or lower.

After 2f you mean

Surely logic is that if the horse lines up Ruby will ride.

I can see Vautour being favourite on Friday, however I'm sure there will be offers on the day that at least match the general price of 9/2 currently available.  My heart says Cue Card to win my head says Don Cossack.

If Walsh holds onto Vautour it will suit Don Cossack who seems to hit flat spot in some of his races and 3m2f soft ground at Cheltenham should suit.  I think he would have won the King George despite the average ride he got from Cooper.

Great race though can't wait.

When you say "if the horse lines up" then logic tells me there must be a doubt in your mind over who Ruby rides! Ruby is on the record as saying he really hopes Vautour will run in the Ryanair, which doesn't sound to me as though he has made his mind up to ride him in the Gold Cup. Are you sure he would desert Djakadam who is proven over the trip and was second in the race as a 6 yo ? For all we know ,if Brian Cooper were to pick Don Cossack then Ruby could yet switch to Don Poli!
Whatever he decides, it will come down to which horse he thinks is most likely to win the race, and he knows better than anyone that it takes a strong stayer to win it.

lets just end all this rabble, ruby rides vautour end of story, fair play to djakadam last year, ybut this horse has put ruby on the deck 3 times, and 3 other races mad bad misktakes that have proven costly, yet vautour has hardly ever touched a twig, made 1 mistake in all his races and that was in novice chase on ground good for ducks. if he rides djakadam ill walk home from cheltenham and i live up north

Vautour if nothing else is surely a massive back to lay.

Surely he'll travel well in running. Surely at some point in the second circuit he'll trade very low in running.

another thing on vautour twice hes ran at chelt hes won by half the track both times

Yes he will no doubt travel like a dream, we know this, but probably not for the last 3 furlongs and there will by a queue of layers taking him on in running from a mile out

No doubt. The way I see it is that if the ground is riding soft they will go for the Ryanair with Vautour. I think he will go in the Gold Cup if they think the ground will be good. This will inconvenience Djakadam and lend weight to the hope they have that Vautour's class will see him home. In that event Ruby rides. I see no chance of the horse running in the race and Ruby not riding but that's just my opinion.

hows it going to come up soft eeternaloptimist when no rain coming and it drains like a runway...

Just seen the in depth weather report on the BBC. No rain all week, some sun, some cloud, temp around 10.
Going at Cheltenham currently good to soft, soft in places.
Come friday, should be good to soft all round. Maybe some good if we're lucky.
Vautour will enjoy the ground.

See the trampoline thread denman. All it would take is a few millimetres at any stage to turn good ground back to soft this week. Weather forecasts change from day to day. At the moment it seems set fair but I don't think you can be more confident till we get towards Thursday.

yeah no offence but people saying "if it comes up soft such and such a horse will go for this race etc" is getting pretty tiresome now when we pretty much know what the ground will be

2m to make ground soft again what planet you on ffs

1st timevisor he dosent have the option of any Don get up to speed ffs

The one where people read what is written rather than what they want to see. A few is a few and not two.

Your post -43 min reply 2m Jesus your

Decalec,yes he does if cooper rides DC

Is it just me or does that make absolutely no sense at all?

To DECAL.

I reckon if the ground is good this vautour will be massively punted anyway. I wouldn't back anything else in the race now, as you are likely to see bigger odds on the day.

can even see it going off less than 2-1 although I accept that will take a huge amount of money.

Not a chance lewisham. He'd be plenty short enough at 4s. Huge stamina doubt whatever the ground. Good ground won't get him to stay

they said the same about best mate first time!!

Your right, they did, even though he hadn't shown he didn't stay! Nobody said it about Florida Pearl or One Man because they stayed 3m so well and One Man got 3m easier than Vautour!

vautour spring horse going left handed.jumping better as a result.  better ground.ruby riding with a bit more restraint. takes off at top of the hill.burns them all off.it wins

He's a cert...to lead after 3 miles...and walk across the line

if he has enough energy left he will win it. hes bred to stay.best trainer and jockey.trainer says hes "as certain as he can be" he will stay that will do me..fill up!!

I don't think he's a cert to do anything and that has to be factored in to the price. How far would he have won the King George if it were left handed on good ground? Factor in that he has almost certainly been trained to peak for this race and I wouldn't be a layer.

Most of the people who bang on about stamina probably never been for a run in their life.

If you can get three miles around a racecourse like cheltenham, then you can get three miles two.

never ran around cheltenham but been around york. the spaces are absolutely massive, these are huge demanding racecourses.

Not true. Off the top of my head I can think of Wayward Lad, Florida Pearl and Strong Promise who would almost certainly have won a Gold Cup over 3 miles. The other obvious point being that Vautour hasn't yet proven he gets 3 miles at the course which makes it all the more intriguing.

One Man won the King George twice... by 12 lengths and by 14 lengths. Both of those years he ran in the Gold Cup and was cantering over the field both years(good ground) at the second last. He was beaten 23 lengths and 22 lengths. The following year he won the Queen Mother CC. Vautour anyone?
Good luck

He could indeed be a One Man type. It's equally feasible he could be a Best Mate type who won three Gold Cups after first losing to a Gold Cup non stayer at Kempton on faster ground than Vautour encountered.

He could be a One Man type, he could be a Best Mate type. And trying to figure it out makes this sport so appealing to us all. Most of the time we don't even get satisfactory resolutions but it still doesn't stop us.

Can we really identify horses who could win over 3m at cheltenham but never 3m2 ?
I know we get the whole 2 and half miler thing and i dont even go along with that most of the time, always comes back to the same half dozen horses, no doubt led by one flippin man (maybe he just had a couple of off days and isnt the undisputed king of 2.954 mile chasing?)
Vautour will run his race because there isnt another horse there who is going to serve it up to him. So as long as Ruby doesnt do anything stupid hes going to get to the bottom of the hill in his own time and find pretty much what hes found for the last 2 years. Doesnt matter how far this particular race is, its a shoot out between a bunch of classy '3milish' types.

...imo

I love the "nobody seems to have spotted it" comment. Pretty sure everybody spotted it, and plenty have mentioned it, but Ruby likes to think he's superior to ordinary mortals.

Thought exactly the same Sankara. What a stupid thing to say.

Vautour reminds me a lot of Kauto Star in possessing the same brilliance (probably not quite as good).  Kauto Star was a real 3 miler whose class won him 2 Cheltenham Gold Cups. Vautour can do the same if he possesses the same class. Personally, I think he isn't as classy and will empty up when running up the hill. The finish will be fought out between Don Cossack and Don Poli.