Cheltenham Gold Cup Tips: Staying star Stattler to strike for Mullins
We provide our Cheltenham Gold Cup tips in our big-race preview for the Cheltenham Festival showpiece, which takes place on Friday 17th March at 15:30. All eyes will be on hot favourite Galopin Des Champs, but we take on that star with another Willie Mullins-trained raider that can sparkle in the feature race of the week...
Galopin Des Champs has been imperious this season storming to victory in the John Durkan Memorial Chase at Punchestown and the Irish Gold Cup at Leopardstown and the Willie Mullins-trained superstar will bid for a Grade 1 hat-trick on Friday and is the red-hot favourite for the Cheltenham Gold Cup and is sure to be popular among punters' Cheltenham tips.
A winner of the Martin Pipe back in 2021, he was miles clear of Bob Olinger in last season's Turners Novices' Chase before falling late on, so he will be on the retrieval mission at this year's Cheltenham Festival and if he can produce his A game alongside a clear round of jumping then he's the one to beat. However, there could be slight stamina concerns over this extended 3m 2f trip and with the rain making the ground soft then he could be worth taking on at the relative skinny odds.
Two former champions will line up in the 2023 renewal and the first of those is last season's runaway winner A Plus Tard, who flopped in the Betfair Chase at Haydock Park on his only start this term, but Henry De Bromhead's raider has shown a real liking for the Cheltenham Festival having won at multiple festivals, so write him off at your peril. De Bromhead will also saddle 2021 champion Minella Indo, who was second last year and is another with a fine festival record. With two wins at the meeting already, Minella Indo was last seen winning the New Year's Day Chase at Tramore and that was a race often used by Al Boum Photo before claiming Gold Cup glory. Both proven performers in this race, De Bromhead's star duo have to warrant respect.
Mightily-impressive in the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park on Boxing Day, Bravemansgame will look to follow up in the Gold Cup for Paul Nicholls and is challenging for second favouritism alongside reigning Grand National hero Noble Yeats, who is another leading contender. While Bravemansgame comes into this on the back of a sparkling win over Christmas, Noble Yeats was beaten in the Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham on Festival Trials Day and has to bounce back here. However, stamina is Noble Yeats' forte and the rain-softened conditions could aid his chances, but they could well hinder Bravemansgame, who may struggle to see it out up the hill.
Arguably the most eye-catching British-trained runner is Ahoy Senor, who was an emphatic winner of the aforementioned Cotswold Chase and Lucinda Russell's dour stayer is a real class act on his day and he has to come into calculations here as he was a fine runner-up in the Brown Advisory Novices' Chase last year behind L'Homme Presse.
One Mullins-trained raider that could go under the radar is STATTLER, who was narrowly beaten by Minella Indo at Tramore on his first run of the season, but he is sure to come on leaps and bounds for that run and is tailor-made for the test of a Gold Cup. A winner of the National Hunt Chase in emphatic style last season, Stattler is still lightly-raced over fences and with stamina is main suit then he could well go close to claiming glory for the king of Closutton.
A faller in the Ryanair Chase last season, Conflated has Grade 1-winning form over three miles and is a classy performer, while Protektorat and Sounds Russian could be outclassed in a vintage renewal of the major race of the week.
