Senior Chief Has Big Chance In Coral Gold Cup
It's a cracking competitive day of racing at Newbury.
The Coral Gold Cup is the standout race with the winner bagging £142,375!
There are two key traits required to win a Coral Gold Cup at Newbury. The first is fluent jumping and the second is stamina. It’s all about getting into a good jumping rhythm and then seeing out the three miles and two furlongs trip. Senior Chief proved that he stays strong and doesn’t need heavy ground when winning at the Cheltenham Showcase meeting last month. He cruised into contention down the hill and then powered up the hill to hold off his stablemate The Short Go with Broadway Flyer back in third.
I have stamina doubts around Broadway Flyer in a strongly run race where he is not guaranteed to get his own way up front. Senior Chief has some decent back form from last season. He only lost out to Minella Cocooner over three miles at Navan by two lengths last January. The winner ended last season winning the Bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown and is rated 158. Senior Chief has been raised 9lbs to a handicap mark of 151 by the UK handicapper. It is the application of cheekpieces that worked the oracle last month and they remain in situ here. He is built to carry weight and can progress on only his sixth racecourse run over fences.
**Note Iron Bridge was due to be our 2nd selection but is a non-runner due to the going
Iron Bridge is of interest from a handicapping angle. He finished a distant second to Nassalam in the Welsh Grand National when rated 6lbs higher. Iron Bridge backed up that run at Chepstow with a third-place finish in a Grand National trial at Haydock won by Yeah Man when rated 140. That is decent form, and we watched Yeah Man run well in the Troytown chase at Navan earlier this month. I think Iron Bridge is a proper stayer but doesn’t want winter heavy ground.
As a novice chaser he carried a big weight when a head second to Autonomous Cloud at Uttoxeter over three miles on soft ground. Iron Bridge returned with an eye-catching run at Carlisle to finish third over 3m2f. Jonjo could have waiting for the Welsh National and protected his current mark of 136 however he runs here. That decision can pay dividends with Iron Bridge guaranteed to stay the trip and enjoy the good to soft ground carrying only 10-10 on his back.
Newbury 3:00
1 point each way Senior Chief 13/2 Coral else 6/1 Ladbrokes, Bet365 & Betfred, 4 places.
0.5 point each way Iron Bridge 16/1 generally, 4 places.
Compare Odds at https://www.oddschecker.com/horse-racing
Best of Luck,
Nicky
Past Results
Click to see past Big Saturday Race Preview Tips results
The event was established in 1957 as the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup, and it was initially staged at Cheltenham. The winner of the inaugural running, Mandarin, was owned by Peggy Hennessy, a member of the family which founded Hennessy, the race's sponsoring company. It was transferred to Newbury in 1960, and it was won by Mandarin for a second time in 1961. The race's second running was won by Taxidermist, ridden by the amateur rider John Lawrence, later Lord Oaksey, who was the breeder and part-owner of the 2011 winner, Carruthers.
The race's association with Hennessy continued until the 60th running, in 2016, and was British racing's longest-running commercial sponsorship at the time. The record was previously held by the Whitbread Gold Cup, which was first run seven months before the "Hennessy", and which was sponsored by Whitbread until 2001. Ladbrokes were announced as the new sponsor in February 2017 and the race was run as the Ladbrokes Trophy until 2021. In 2022 Coral replaced Ladbrokes as the title sponsor and the race took its present title.
The race has been won by nine horses that have also won the Cheltenham Gold Cup. The most recent of these is Native River, the winner of the latter race in 2018.
Many Clouds became the first horse to win both the Hennessy Gold Cup and the Grand National, in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
Coral Gold Cup Premier Handicap Chase Winners Over The Past 10 years
| Year | Winner | Age | Weight | Jockey | Trainer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Datsalrightgino | 7 | 10-07 | Gavin Sheehan | Jamie Snowden |
| 2022 | Le Milos | 7 | 11-00 | Harry Skelton | Dan Skelton |
| 2021 | Cloudy Glen | 8 | 10-08 | Charlie Deutsch | Venetia Williams |
| 2020 | Cloth Cap | 8 | 10-00 | Tom Scudamore | Jonjo O'Neill |
| 2019 | De Rasher Counter | 7 | 10-10 | Ben Jones | Emma Lavelle |
| 2018 | Sizing Tennessee | 10 | 11-03 | Tom Scudamore | Colin Tizzard |
| 2017 | Total Recall | 8 | 10-08 | Paul Townend | Willie Mullins |
| 2016 | Native River | 6 | 11-01 | Richard Johnson | Colin Tizzard |
| 2015 | Smad Place | 8 | 11-04 | Wayne Hutchinson | Alan King |
| 2014 | Many Clouds | 7 | 11-06 | Leighton Aspell | Oliver Sherwood |
Best of Luck,
Nicky