Fugitif on the loose at Cheltenham
We return to Cheltenham where the December Gold Cup is our target race.
We could really do with finding a winner for this column as it has been a long time between drinks!
My members service is enjoying a great year with well over 100 points won to level stakes so it's just a case of landing a few winners in these competitive Saturday handicaps.
Fugitif is a horse we know well from last season where he ended up finishing runner up in the Bryne plate handicap chase at the march festival. He is a big chaser with lots of scope and will love the rain softened ground at Cheltenham tomorrow. I thought he ran well enough here in November in the Paddy Power Gold Cup. He wore first time pieces and just ran too fresh or freely giving himself no chance of winning. To his credit he held on for fourth place and the handicapper has dropped him 2lbs to a mark of 151. The new course suits Fugitif much better than the tighter old course. Thanks to Joseph O’Brien running top weight Fakir D’oudairies it leaves Fugitif running here carrying 11-3 with the pieces gone.
Monmiral is a grade 1 winning hurdler having his fourth run over fences. He has the class to win this race and I thought he jumped fences well last year. He finished second behind Jonbon over fences at Warwick at two miles before coming here and running a solid race finishing second to subsequent Cheltenham Festival winner The Real Whacker. Monmiral failed to get home at Sandown in the Group 1 Scilly Isles novices chase. Paul Nicholls switched him back to hurdles at the Aintree Festival in the Grade 1 Stayers hurdle where he didn’t get the trip. It is interesting to hear Paul mention that a summer wind operation has made a big difference to the homework of Monmiral. He has the class and this intermediate trip at handicap level looks the job. He is rated 145 and has Harry Cobden riding carrying 10-11.
Cheltenham 1:50
0.5 point each way Fugitif 13/2 Skybet 5 places else 15/2 William Hill, 4 places.
0.5 point each way Monmiral 11/2 Bet365 else 5/1 generally, 4 places.
Past Results
Click to see past Big Saturday Race Preview Tips results
The December Gold Cup (run since 2023 as the Virgin Bet December Gold Cup) is a Premier Handicap National Hunt steeplechase in Great Britain which is open to horses aged four years or older. It is run on the New Course at Cheltenham over a distance of about 2 miles and 4½ furlongs (2 miles 4 furlongs and 127 yards, or 4,139 metres), and during its running there are seventeen fences to be jumped. It is a handicap race, and it is scheduled to take place each year in December.
The event was first run in 1963. It was originally sponsored by Massey Ferguson and known as the Massey Ferguson Gold Cup. The race continued with this title until 1980, but since then it has had various sponsors and consequently several title changes. The 2005 running was named the Robin Cook Memorial Gold Cup. This was in memory of Robin Cook (1946–2005), a former Foreign Secretary who was a keen racing enthusiast. Boylesports supported the race from 2006 to 2009 as the Boylesports.com Gold Cup. The 2010 race was run as the Vote A P Gold Cup as part of a successful campaign to encourage racegoers to vote for Tony McCoy in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.
In 2011 the racehorse owner Andy Stewart began backing the race to promote the Spinal Research charity, following a spinal injury suffered by his son Paul in 2008. The race was run as the Spinal Research The Atlantic 4 Gold Cup in 2011, the Paul Stewart IronSpine Charity Challenge Gold Cup in 2012 and was then named the Stewart Family Thank You Gold Cup in 2013. From 2014 to 2020 it was run as the Caspian Caviar Gold Cup and in 2021 it was titled the Racing Post Gold Cup.
The race has become commonly known in the racing media as the December Gold Cup. and in 2022 Ais took over sponsorship and the word December appeared in the official race title. Virgin Bet have sponsored the race since 2023. The race was give Grade 3 status when the National Hunt Pattern was revised in 1989 and was re-classified as a Premier Handicap from the 2022 running when Grade 3 status was renamed by the BHA.
The race is often contested by horses which ran previously in the Paddy Power Gold Cup (also formerly known by other titles). Three have won both races in the same season – Pegwell Bay, Senor El Betrutti and Exotic Dancer.
Winners over past 10 years
| Year | Winner | Age | Weight | Jockey | Trainer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| no race 2022 [d] | |||||
| 2021 | Coole Cody | 10 | 10-12 | Adam Wedge | Evan Williams |
| 2020 | Chatham Street Lad | 8 | 10-10 | Darragh O'Keeffe | Michael Winters |
| 2019 | Warthog | 7 | 10-03 | David Noonan | David Pipe |
| 2018 | Frodon | 6 | 11-12 | Bryony Frost | Paul Nicholls |
| 2017 | Guitar Pete | 7 | 10-02 | Ryan Day | Nicky Richards |
| 2016 | Frodon | 4 | 10-10 | Sam Twiston-Davies | Paul Nicholls |
| 2015 | Village Vic | 8 | 10-00 | Richard Johnson | Philip Hobbs |
| 2014 | Niceonefrankie | 8 | 11-05 | Aidan Coleman | Venetia Williams |
| 2013 | Double Ross | 7 | 10-08 | Sam Twiston-Davies | Nigel Twiston-Davies |
Best of Luck,
Nicky