Winning Post
 By David
Thorpe
Cheltenham beacon lights the way
After some preliminary jousting in recent weeks the National Hunt Racing
season clicks into top gear with the open meeting at Cheltenham next weekend.
The Paddy Power Gold Cup is the highlight of this showpiece meeting and
some of the best two-and-a-half mile chasers from both sides of the Irish
Sea will be competing.
Following his scintillating first run of the season two weeks ago Kauoto
Star is quite a short favourite for this race. No decision has been made
as to whether he will run or not but if the Paul Nicholls charge does
line-up it might be best to oppose him at short odds.
The horse to consider from the Nicholls’ yard particularly if Kauoto
Star doesn’t run is the highly-rated Taranis. This fellow has been
on a good winning run of late but they were much weaker races than this
and he would have to improve dramatically to feature in this contest.
While he does look capable of that it might just be that his best days
lie in the future so it wouldn’t be the best bet in the world for
him in this contest at Cheltenham.
Our Vic won this race last year and showed his class at the Cheltenham
festival. With a record like that he’s unlikely to be far away but
a combination of a possible high weight and his unpredictability make
Our Vic hard to recommend.
A nice each-way bet might be the Carl Llewllyn-trained Too Forward who
was unlucky to be brought down at the Cheltenham Festival last March but
on the best of his form he would have an excellent chance here.
There is plenty of quality in the field, notably from the Noel Meade-trained
Watson Lake, who put in what was arguably a career best performance when
chasing home Cheltenham Gold Cup winner War of Attrition at Navan recently.
With Paul Carberry in the saddle he is a horse deserving of serious consideration
for punters looking for a bit of value in the race.
So in a race which is rarely very good to Irish-trained horses take Noel
Meade’s Watson Lake to record a famous victory.
There are several other quality races on the Cheltenham card and a horse
to follow may be Roll Along. This horse was among the very best Bumper
performers of last season and secured his place among the top echelons
of the novice hurdle division with a convincing debut run at the start
of this season.
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