Think Protek going straight to Cheltenham now will help his cause.
Hes done nothing but improve for stepping up in distance, and is now rewarding his connections for the patience they have showed with him, big player imo.
Chantry House is another whose improved for the step up in distance, and should be ideally suited to the Gold Cup conditions, as opposed to Kempton.Hes performed well at Cheltenham and i expect him to perform well again.
Fiddler ran a good race in the RSA, and again in the Ladbroke this season, and is an interesting outsider.
Really not sure about MI this year, but i do expect him to bounce back from the run at Kempton.
APT has an obvious chance,and must surely go close.
The one they all have to beat is Galvin imo.
Hes absolutely tailor made for a Gold Cup, in form and goes straight to Cheltenham now.

To be honest it looks a cracker to me this year, and whilst i think Galvin wins, i would not be shocked if either of last years 1st and 2nd won, and if Protek, CH and Fiddler continue to improve i can see either of those figuring in the finish.

Galvin , Protektorat or Fiddlerontheroof ....the winner likely to come from these three imo.

I see it was running on in a grade 3 handicap , the mildmay,three.mile two on a flat track good to soft, I doubt Tizzard has got the cheek to actually run it in the Gold Cup

Don't see the Tizzard horse being good enough to topol the big guns.

lot of difference between h/cap chases and Grade 1s

Denman ,  Burrough Hill Lad , Bregawn , Miil House , Arkle .....all ran in the Hennessey .....

The race is not strong this year.
Minello Indo has gone sideways , As Plus Tard does not stay 26 furlongs , As Plus Tard had his day , Chantry House has it all t0 prove ....

Galvin and Protektorat are the most likely winners , Fiddlerontheroof may not be good enough as you say ......but he is the only entrant at a price who could win imo.

One Man won a Hennessy too , and ..... Florida Pearl won four Irish Hennessys , and ....but we wont know until he tries .

^^mixed up

Jodami was btn off of just 10-2 in the Hennessy.
If he runs I think Al Boum Photo will win this
for the 3rd time.

Relax penzance we know he stays

Jodami had daft rides in the Hennessy and his second Gold Cup. He could gallop all day and when ridden by a conditional in a bumper and hurdles he just went from the front and had everything beaten by half way and won by 20 lengths every time. Mark Dwyer for some reason always held him up and he had no finishing speed. When he won the Gold Cup, the Pipe horse went a mad pace and only Jodami could live with him so all Jodami had to do was keep galloping when the leader ran out of gas. The next year there were about 10 horses on the bridle 3 out including the very slow Topsham Bay so Jodami got beaten by The Fellow who had a good turn of foot. Ridden from the front I don't think he would ever have been beaten.

Bad luck! Have you had a prize in the ttf since? I can remember the race well. As a huge fan of Jodami, I was not sure that Rushing Wild would come back to him until the second last but the rest were nowhere. When Jodami ran at Haydock a few years later I was on track and able to stand close to him in the unsaddling after winning the Peter Marsh chase. His head was the biggest I have ever seen on a racehorse-more like a Shire horse. That was despite being descended from blue bloods like Crepello and Busted.

I used to put in Skippers Cleuch or whatever Lungo novice hurdler was n vogue as you knew he'd rack up a few gimmes up north before facing anything half decent and when he did send them down south and in Skipper's case he got found out as kicking the hurdles out of the way wasn't conducive to beating the big guns.

youd think fiddler on the roof  would have to work hard to win the gold cup.

Much looking forward to this race. I'm expecting a new Champion either APT or Galvin given connections of Champ has chickened out. And, I think Chantry House will be a back-number even if he turn up on given form; Minella Indo is not the same horse as last season unless he redeems himself big time in the Irish Gold Cup this saturday.

Great decision by De Bromhead, some jockeys just don’t get on with particular horses.
Good to see trainer and owners having some balls rather than just keeping with Blackmore.
She’s still the best around imo, but just like it’s horses for courses, it can pay to look at jockey and horse pairings.

the owner probably wants someone who's available
for the Gold Cup.
He was unhappy about Blackmore picking A Plus Tard
over Minello Indo last year aswell, I think.

I would not have much confidence in Frodon or any of de Bromhead's runners on recent stable form. I would not be surprised if Elliott and Mullins win all of the Group 1 races between them at Leopardstown.

Conflated is the only horse to take from this race. He was given a dream ride by Russell keeping to the inside throughout, and is improving; Minella Indo had every chance and ran much better than in the King George; Kemboy lost all chance by jumping repeatedly to the right and keeping wide.

I think the proximity of Janidil to Minella Indo was telling for the latter.

Conflated won a comparative speed test today, and it is no coincidence that the winner of this race has a poor record in Gold Cups. My concern as an admitted MI fan (and nothing against Robbie Power) is that I did not believe for one minute that Power would keep the ride in the GC with Kennedy likely being available, but Conflated has thrown a spanner in the works now.

However I have a sneaky suspicion in the way that Elliott answered the GC question afterwards that he wouldn't fancy his chances against Galvin and CO in a GC and if he had his way wouldn't necessarily run him but the trainer will have a job on his hands convincing Gigginstown not to run.

However 10/1 NRNB for Conflated in the Ryanair is interesting to me to win their own race where as usual most in the betting won't run, if he did run he'd be a clear 2nd fav. For now I've had a few speculative quid on him at 17 in the without Allaho market on the exchange, but I do expect Giggy to run him in the GC but I think the prices on offer make it worth a speculative bet.

It was a slow race and turned in to a dash at the end. Russell caught them out!
Russell will ride Galvin
Rachael on APT
Kennedy on any Gigginstown horse (if they have one and Conflated runs, I'd say Gigginstown will have a runner)
Power on Minella Indo