Champion trainer Paul Nicholls targets Gold Cup with Bravemansgame
13-time champion trainer Paul Nicholls hails “best staying chasing in England” ahead of Bravemansgame’s date with destiny in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
The master of Ditcheat is no stranger to success in jump racing’s most prestigious race having first won the contest in 1999 with See More Business before his trio of victories between 2007-2009 with Kauto Star and Denman.
With just over two weeks to go until the feature race of the Cheltenham Festival, his King George-winning eight-year-old is looking to hand Nicholls a record-breaking fifth success in the attritional staying event.
“He probably is my best chance in the Gold Cup [since Kauto Star and Denman],” said Nicholls. “He’s got one of our best chances of the week.
“One thing he did at Kempton [in the King George] is stayed on really strongly – he didn’t get the best passage through the race at all until turning into the straight, but he stayed on really strongly and horses that win the King George win Gold Cups.
“I think he’s got one of our best chances of the week. It’s a good race, any Gold Cup is hard to win, but he’s right in the mix.
“It would be lovely to win the Gold Cup again, it’s what we do it for. He won a good King George this year and keeps going well and if I’d have shown you a picture of him last year compared to now, it’s no comparison. He’s a bigger and stronger horse this year and in a much better place, so we’re very hopeful.
The three-time Grade 1-winning gelding has run once around Prestbury Park before, finishing third in the 2020 Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle behind Sir Gerhard.
That course form and recent 17-length victory in the King George has earned him quotes of 8/1 for the £625,000 race in March.
“I read somewhere that he doesn’t act on the track,” chuckled Nicholls. “But he’s had one run there and was third in the Ballymore when beaten by a horse who on the day was an airplane and now can’t raise a gallop!
“I can assure you when he was six years old he wasn’t half the horse he is now, he’s needed all the time in the world to mature and get big like he is now.
“He’s twice the horse now as a model and everything about him that he was last year. He was very light and behind 12 months ago and it just didn’t go right for him.
“We learned a few things about him after last year and you never stop learning how to train one. I think we’ve got it right with him now and he looks great.”
The feature event on the final day of the Festival is not the only contest that Team Ditcheat holds a strong chance in, as the promising Hermes Allen is set to represent the yard in the same race Bravemansgame was unable to win three years ago.
The progressive six-year-old has surprised the Grand National-winning operator this season with just how much he has improved and he now comes into March off the back of a long break since his Grade 1 Challow Hurdle victory on New Year’s Eve.
Nicholls said: “We didn’t run him last spring because he was quite backward and he surprised me when he won first time out at Stratford. He went to Cheltenham and then Newbury and won very nicely both times after that, so he’s been great.
“He’s obviously got a huge amount of ability and I’m excited about him going to Cheltenham, but I’m also excited about his future and going chasing next year.
“He’s probably got the best chance of our horses if you go solely off the market because he’s favourite, but I don’t look at the betting. There are so many good horses around, some will improve, and some will underperform, so it’s a very competitive race.
“He’s done really well so far so hopefully he’ll go very close. It’s not the be-all and end-all as he’ll be a lovely chaser next year but he’s in a lovely place at the moment.
“He jumps and he’ll be ridden forward and he’s a lovely horse. We’re not having too many runs, we thought we didn’t need to run him again after the Challow because we can always go to Aintree after.”
