Bet365 Gold Cup tips: Punting Pointers antepost bet for Sandown
David Massey and Rory Delargy tackle Sandown's bet365 Gold Cup in their latest long-range preview.
Antepost tips: National Hunt season
1pt win Le Milos in bet365 Gold Cup at 11/1 (bet365) - General 10/1 fine but no lower
LE MILOS is the most interesting runner in this year’s renewal of the bet365 Gold Cup, with Dan Skelton likely to rely on him as his best chance of lifting the trophy as he tries to win the trainers' championship.
The 2022 Coral Gold Cup winner has been raced very sparingly since then, only seen out five times after that and never really running to the same level again, although it’s very easy to find excuses for many of those runs, clearly not staying the Grand National trip after looking a threat three out, and two runs over hurdles after that looked very much like they were runs to get him qualified for the Pertemps Final, and then one in February as a warm-up for the Festival.
Many expected a better run from him in March, only going off a 6/1 chance to win the Final itself, but to my paddock eyes, he was one of the very few Skelton horses on the week that didn’t look absolutely razor-sharp.
That surprised me somewhat, and I thought I was perhaps viewing him through something of a negative prism but no, I thought he actually ran like a horse that needed it - travelling well enough into the race and you’d have been happy enough two out, but he flattened out pretty quickly coming to the last and finished well held.
With that, I did wonder whether there might be a late-season chase on the cards for him. The Scottish Grand National would have been the other alternative but he’s been taken out of that on Monday, the yard relying on Sail Away and Ballygrifincottage to try and bring that particular prize back to Warwickshire, and so it would appear that Le Milos will be the designated runner for the bet365.
He tops my list, but there are others to consider.
Kitty’s Light barely takes any explaining and although it’s easy enough to say that this will come quick enough after his fifth in the Grand National, the ground drying up enough for him on the day for him to show his form, but don’t forget he won this last year after winning the Scottish National the week before!
He’s as tough as teak, comes alive in the spring and is still only 5lb higher than last year’s success. Whether 6/1 is a backable antepost price, though, is another question; it’s hard to see how he starts much shorter, if at all, on the day.
Threeunderthrufive is another to be taken out of Ayr at the weekend earlier today. He’s had a good year, showing both a good level of form and a great deal of consistency with it, fully deserving of his win at Ascot last time. A new mark of 156 demands more of this nine-year-old, but drying ground would enhance his chances and whereas once upon a time we might have viewed him as a flat-track bully, that’s simply no longer the case. Maybe one to back on the day with the extra places on offer.
Rory was quite keen on Desertmore House for the Grand National but he failed to make the cut. He has been campaigned with that race in mind since winning the Kerry National at Listowel’s Harvest Festival and ran creditably over hurdles in his prep run. He’s fairly handicapped, and while his wins over fences have come on soft ground, he doesn’t want it any deeper than that, and his best hurdles efforts came on good and yielding ground.
Rory reckons he might prove even better on a sound surface and is one to keep onside if confirmed for the race. He has come in for some support, which may be an indication that he will run, but there’s little to lose by waiting a little longer to pull the trigger, we hope.
The other I have to mention is Mr Vango. He’s a hard one to weigh up, in some respects, but the similarities between himself and the yard’s previous winner, Step Back, are not hard to spot.
Both have the same swashbuckling front-running style, and like Step Back, Mr Vango has rather come out of leftfield this spring to throw down a challenge. (Step Back won this on his fourth chase start - this will also be Mr Vango’s fourth chase start, another mirroring).
He couldn’t have been more impressive when routing them at Exeter two starts ago, nothing getting anywhere near him as he ran away in the latter stages for a 60 (sixty, vidiprinter addicts) length win and off the back of that, connections decided to chance their arm in the National Hunt Chase. My worry was that would simply come too quick and to my eyes, that’s how it looked, running a good race on the front end but getting very tired after the last.
He’s now had a decent break, and although the handicapper has had a say, he remains unexposed as a staying chaser and the biggest question will be the likely faster ground. He handled good to soft back in 2022 when winning on his Haydock debut, which would give you some hope, but to me he’s the one that could take a decent step forward.
He's out of the weights at the moment, but likely to be in them if Hewick comes out, which has to be a distinct possibility.
Published at 1650 BST on 15/04/24
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