Coral Gold Cup: Snowden hopes ‘lightning can strike twice’

Jamie Snowden has high hopes of landing back-to-back Coral Gold Cups, this year with Colonel Harry.

Having claimed the prestigious prize with Datsalrightgino last year, this time around Colonel Harry carries his hopes, as well as the same blue and purple silks of the GD Partnership.

A smart novice hurdler, he went novice chasing last season and finished second in a Grade One at Sandown Park before winning the Grade Two Towton at Wetherby.

On his return he finished second in the Colin Parker at Carlisle to Marble Sands, and Snowden, speaking at the Coral Gallops Morning at Newbury, sees similarities in the way they have ended up in the race.

“They are quite different horses, Colonel Harry and Datsalrightgino, but they have followed very similar paths through their careers,” he said.

“They were both very good novice hurdlers, placed in Grade Ones and started off in the same novice chase at Chepstow. Gavin (Sheehan) thinks he is sure to stay, obviously without trying it you don’t know but it is the approach we took with Datsalrightgino, hoping we would have a bit of mileage left in our handicap mark by going up in trip. It obviously worked last year, and we are hoping lightning can strike twice.

“He did a lot of winning over two miles early on in his career. He was quite a free going individual, but actually the older he has got, the more relaxed he’s got, the more settled he has become, and this race has been on the agenda for a while.”

“He goes left-handed, he’s better left-handed. We had a prep run up at Carlisle and he jumped out to his left, he’s always gone slightly left when he’s gone on a right-handed track so he will certainly suit a left-handed track.”

As for his Carlisle comeback, he said: “He’s bounced out of his run at Carlisle, I didn’t want to bring him to the Coral Gold Cup Gallops Morning as he’s a different horse to Datsalrightgino who was quite a stuffy, big, burly individual.

“Colonel Harry is quite tall, angular, an athletic kind of horse who didn’t need to come here. We got the prep run into him and now the rain has come we can get him on the grass in Lambourn. He loves soft ground, so the softer the better. We were hoping the rain would come, so as long as it is good to soft or softer, that should suit him down to the ground.”