Ridoto and Hurricane look storming bets in December Gold Cup
WHEN I was looking back through the recent winners of Saturday’s December Gold Cup (1.50pm) at Cheltenham, one statistic stood out like a sore thumb.
Favourites have a terrible record in the race and you have to go all the way back to 2009 and Poquelin to find the last market leader who emerged victorious.
I wasn’t mad keen on current market leader Thunder Rock earlier in the week and having seen how badly favourites have fared in the 2m4f contest recently, I’m even more against him now.
Granted his comfortable victory over Coral Gold Cup runner-up Mahler Mission at Carlisle last time looks strong form as does his second to Datsalrightgino at Ayr last season, but his jumping has let him down badly on both starts at Cheltenham and I’ll be looking to take him on.
The aforementioned Poquelin was of course trained by Paul Nicholls and I think the Champion Trainer holds very good claims of winning it for a record sixth time with IL RIDOTO.
Stable jockey Harry Cobden has chosen to ride Monmiral, but I’m not too bothered by that as Monmiral really hasn’t fulfilled the potential many thought he had after he bolted up in the Grade One 4-Y-O Hurdle at Aintree in 2021.
He’s still a novice over fences and while a wind operation could be what he needed, he looks plenty short enough in a race of this nature based on recent evidence.
Il Ridoto, however, looks an ideal candidate for this sort of race and I expect him to go very well.
He might only be a six-year-old, but he has bundles of good form in these types of races, especially on the New Course at Cheltenham.
The best of his form came when victorious over course and distance on New Year’s Day where he showed a really tenacious attitude to get up in the dying strides of the contest.
He’s only five pounds higher than that now, and a really solid third in the Paddy Power Gold Cup last time should have left him spot on for this.
The 7/1 on offer at this stage looks about as solid an each-way bet as you’ll find.
I’m always on the hunt for a bit of value, especially at this stage of the week, and if there’s one at a big price that could go well then it’s Gavin Cromwell’s RAILWAY HURRICANE.
The Irish handler is one of the shrewdest around and his record at Cheltenham this season is outstanding having had five winners from just 12 runners.
His contender here looks interesting as he has lots of solid form around Cheltenham and seems to go really well at the Gloucestershire track.
He hasn’t had much luck on the last two starts either as he’s been hampered at crucial moments and would almost certainly have finished closer both times without that misfortune.
While he isn’t the easiest to win with, I can see him being smuggled into this off a very low weight and hitting the frame at a big price.
Cromwell has shown that he’s deadly when it comes to bringing one over this season and I wouldn’t be surprised if this race had been the target for a while.
The 20/1 he’s currently trading at looks well worth snapping up as he’ll almost certainly be much shorter come the off.
POINTERS SATURDAY
Il Ridoto e/w 1.50pm Cheltenham
Railway Hurricane e/w 1.50pm Cheltenham