Coral Gold Cup: three for the shortlist

The Coral Gold Cup is one of the standout handicap chases of the National Hunt season, but this year's renewal looks set to be both shy on quantity and quality compared to histprical standards.

Indeed, Nassalam has a mark of 156, making him the lowest-rated Coral Gold Cup top-weight in the last decade. Last year Ahoy Senor ran here off a mark of 169. 

That means the handicap is more compressed than is normally the case, which in theory means we have a group of horses quite closely matched on the book. 

It’s seven years since we had an Irish-trained winner of the race and it looks like we might not have many travelling over this time around, but that’s not to say the £142,375 first prize won’t be going back over the Irish Sea because Henry De Bromhead is big-pot hunting with a horse who comes into the race with strong credentials. 

Here are three for the big-race shortlist.

Trainer: Henry de Bromhead Odds: 7/1

Everything clicked into place at Cheltenham last month for Senior Chief, who travelled through that competitive handicap like a horse ahead of the assessor. A 9lb rise clearly demands more and in what is a stronger race on paper, but there could be a good bit more to come from the seven-year-old now he’s in the groove. He stays well, looks best suited by going left-handed and might well have this teed up nicely if he can get into a good rhythm just behind the leaders.

Trainer: Jamie Snowden Odds: 7/1

Colonel Harry represents the same team that took this prize 12 months ago and he looks a bit of a plot. Highly tried as a novice chaser last year, the seven-year-old hasn’t been asked to go beyond two and a half miles since his pointing days but, having won a point by 6 lengths on soft ground, this new test could be a platform on which he can shine. There was plenty to like about his second at Carlisle on his return - a run that will have put him spot-on for this assignment - and jockey Gavin Sheehan was quick to reference the Coral Gold Cup in the post-race interview.  

Trainer: Dan Skelton Odds: 10/1

We’ll never know how Midnight River would have got on in this race 12 months ago given he didn’t get past the 14th fence, but he was going plenty well enough at the time and he’s surely been trained for this contest once again. His reappearance at Wetherby was hugely encouraging given the amount of weight he was conceding to a race-fit winner and that should have put him spot-on for a race his stable won in 2022 with Le Milos. Midnight River has a good record at this time of the year and he’s 5lb below last year’s rating for this race.