Henry de Bromhead is seeing the right signs from Gold Cup champion A Plus Tard ahead of his repeat title bid.
The 15-2 third favourite with William Hill has not raced since he was pulled up in the Betfair Chase last November. A late setback ruled the winner of almost £1 million out of a crack at the Savills Chase over Christmas.
County Waterford-based De Bromhead and owners Cheveley Park Stud opted to keep A Plus Tard fresh for Cheltenham.
Backers are unsure of what to expect, from a market headed by the up and coming chaser Galopin Des Champs. But De Bromhead hopes his charge will reproduce what he is seeing on the gallops when March 17 comes around.
"He worked well ten days ago, we are very happy with him. It has been a tough season with him but he seems to be really coming back to himself," he said, with less than a week to go until the Boodles-backed feature.
"We're as hopeful as we could be coming into the race."
Never travelling when going for back-to-back renewals of the first Grade 1 chase of the season at Haydock, it was A Plus Tard's only non-completion in 20 runs.
The son of Kapgarde, runner-up in the Gold Cup the previous year, had always placed in the top three.
"It has just been frustrtaing," De Bromhead added to Racing TV about the season so far.
"Obviously it was a no-show in the Betfair Chase, his bloods were haywire when he came back – perfect going the week before.
"He seems good there now. Our hands were tied becasue he could only really go left-handed. So we just committed to going to straight to the Gold Cup and we will find out on Friday whether we were right or wrong."
