Greatwood Gold Cup guide: Granedur D'Ame takes on Highstakesplayer at Newbury

The BetVictor Greatwood Gold Cup tops the billing at Newbury on Saturday, live on Sky Sports Racing. Nine runners go to post for this two-mile and three furlong contest, and Jamie Lynch has all you need to know about each of them.

A prize fund boosted back to near its glory days is on offer for this open-ended handicap, though only the one is weighing in above a mark of 140, with just a 10lb range between eight of the nine, still competitive in its strictest sense and close to the standard of a Festival handicap, with three bringing a Cheltenham entry with them...

Jetoile

Jockey: Dylan Johnston (5) | Trainer: R Potter

As a chaser Jetoile was like Super Mario, trundling along one minute and, upon collecting a star, invincible the next. He evolved from a five-chase maiden to an unstoppable machine, completing a hat-trick in the Old Roan at 25/1, rising to a mark of 150, from which he ran fairly well in a better Premier Handicap than this at Cheltenham. His faltering fourth (behind Ga Law) could be in part explained by a break of three months.

To counteract top-weight, they've wisely turned to crack conditional Dylan Johnston who's had seven wins from his last 25 rides and is well worth his 5lb claim. His class counts for something, more so in a handicap that's a 0-140 besides him, and it's worth remembering he carried 12-0 to victory at Chepstow last spring.

Kandoo Kid

H Cobden | P F Nicholls

It's easy enough to hand him a pass for last time in the Great Yorkshire Chase, his first go at three miles and presumably his last, whereas this course and distance suits him very well. He finished first and a neck second in his two visits in midwinter, not that he wants a bog, the less rain the better for him.

On the one hand he's a novice over fences and therefore unexposed in theory, but in reality he's handicapped on a flimsy piece of form in a small-field Grade Two at Ascot that mightn't be worth much let alone 140. Paul Nicholls has won this handicap eight times, often with novices, but this is a battle between mark and market. The markets are saying one thing but his mark saying another - and I'm on the sceptical side of the dividing line.

Sir Psycho

Paul O'Brien | Harry Derham

He started with a bang for the yard and the form of that Ascot race suggested it may be a springboard and not just a statement, but it now looks more of a false dawn. The four-time winner was beaten at 4/6 next time before he got only as far as the first at Sandown.

His early bath at Sandown does at least mean there's still the possibility of some impact value from the cheekpieces, which he always wore for his former yard, and, despite somehow seeming older, he's only an eight-year-old so there's time for Derham to work some more magic.

Bill Baxter

James Bowen | W Greatrex

This horse topped a tremendous first campaign over fences by winning the 29-runner Topham, taking to the National fences like a proverbial duck to water. He has inevitably found it harder playing in the bigger leagues this season but hasn't packed the same punch himself either, perhaps marking time until a return to Aintree. He's liable to be off the same mark, having slipped 6lb already.

He's too well handicapped to put a line through him for this, in the lightest handicap he's faced so far this season, but it's still a stretch to support him when he hasn't seen out a race properly for a while.

Gemirande

Charlie Deutsch | Miss V Williams

Gemirande was beaten by just a head in this event last year, but was on the crest of a progressive wave, which is in stark contrast to now as he's coming in cold, absent since April. What's more, favoured by front running, he had it his own way 12 months ago, a luxury he's unlikely to be afforded here with a few fiery ones against him.

The handicapper hasn't cut him any slack for his spell on the sidelines, still 2lb higher than last year, and, even for Venetia, it would be quite the training feat to win a race as competitive as this on his reappearance, though the stable as a whole is about to turn another corner having won with two of its last three runners.

Grandeur D'Ame

Tom Cannon | A King

This runner thrives off adrenaline and has won first time out on three occasions, doing so by 25 lengths at Wetherby this time around, looking a world-beater that day. However, a new mark in the mid-130s proved beyond him in the December Gold Cup (fourth to Fugitif) and he was uncharacteristically unseated (at the first) back at Cheltenham last time.

It's hard to know quite what to expect from him but he's electric when on song, and he's in tune with heavy ground, as well as coming to a track that rewards rhythm, so the stage is set for one of his virtuoso performances.

Gustavian

Rex Dingle | A J Honeyball

Honeyball's nine-year-old usually lets himself down in some way, either jumping or attitude, which is the reason that his only win in the last three years came in a three-runner chase. His pressure points will soon be pushed here, over a shorter trip than usual for him nowadays: six of his last eight races have been over three miles.

He has the talent to win this, from his lowest ever mark over fences, but whether he has the temperament is another matter, coming with a wealth warning.

Heltenham

C Gethings | D Skelton

Completed an 89-day hat-trick last season, yet here he's being asked to go again for a second successive weekend, able to race off the same mark as when second at Kempton.

All the same, the course and conditions make this a better fit for him than Kempton (course-and-distance winner around this time last year), and his patient play maps out well for a race that threatens to get attritional with the projected gallop and ground.

Highstakesplayer

Stan Sheppard | T Lacey

Highstakesplayer has done it innocuously and incrementally, but he's one of the most progressive jumpers around. Two lengthy lay-offs proved unproblematic as he came back with a bang at Kempton last month without the merest hint of a 458-day absence, all power to him.

The problem is that he's missing a few rungs of the ladder to compete in this Premier Handicap, not out of the weights but potentially out of his comfort zone, and the "bounce" factor is naturally in play with him - it's worth remembering that success was in the balance on his second start back last term before his real-time rival (a 25/1 chance) fell at the second-last.

Jamie Lynch's verdict

There's little between most in this high-end handicap and, with that in mind, along with the increasingly testing ground, the market could look very different at off time than it does the day before. In that spirit, the double-figure price about Sir Psycho just seems wrong for a horse who brings as much to the table as he does, with the form of his Ascot win still fairly fresh in the mind, on top of his strike-rate on soft/heavy ground, and he's in just his first season with the excellent Harry Derham.