The Paddy Power Gold Cup has been through multiple incarnations over the years and the fact that it is now sponsored by a bookie tells its own tale, but it is far more than just another valuable handicap chase and it was plain how much victory here meant to Ga Law’s connections as they celebrated his hard-fought success on Saturday.
The five-strong Footie Partnership, which owns Ga Law, was formed five years ago in memory of their close friend Nick Foot after his death from cancer.
“It is an emotional afternoon,” Jamie Snowden, Ga Law’s trainer, said. “There were six of them who came to Cheltenham year in and year out, and they set up this partnership with the idea of coming back here and hoping to win a big race at Cheltenham. And here it is. I think Nick Foot would have had a grandson yesterday so it has all come together.”
The drama started early in a typically incident-strewn race, as the course specialist Coole Cody, the winner two years ago, was pulled up after a bad mistake in the early stages.
Plumpton 12.40 Brief Times 1.10 Grozni 1.40 Wajaaha 2.10 Dame Du Soir 2.40 Storm Hill 3.10 Largy Nights 3.40 The Tin Miner (nb)
Exeter 1.00 Raddon Top (nap) 1.30 Camprond 2.00 Timeforatune 2.30 Representing Bob 3.00 Masters Legacy 3.30 Lutinebella 4.05 Carrigmorrna Rowan
Leicester 1.20 Let’s Go Amigo 1.50 Samatian 2.20 Never No Trouble 2.50 Asa 3.20 Order Of St John 3.50 Just The Man
Wolverhampton 5.00 Cavern Club 5.30 Victoria Falls 6.00 Diocles Of Rome 6.30 Chanson D’Amour 7.00 Ellie Piper 7.30 Exquisitely 8.00 Sol Cayo 8.30 Victory March
Stolen Silver, backed down from 6-1 to set off as 4-1 favourite, was still in touch with the leaders when he unseated Sam Twiston-Davies, his rider, three out, where Slate House was also a faller. French Dynamite, bidding to give Mouse Morris only the second win in the race for Ireland since 1980, was travelling like the winner on the turn for home.
He jumped into a clear lead two out but a mistake at the last gave Ga Law and Jonathan Burke a chance to close and then find a final effort to cross the line three-quarters of a length in front.
Ga Law spent 603 days on the sidelines at the end of a highly promising but foreshortened novice chasing career, and returned to action only three weeks ago.
Cheltenham: 1.10 Bardenstown Lad, 1.45 Edwardstone, 2.20 Does He Know, 2.55 Dads Lad (nap), 3.30 Fennor Cross (nb), 4.00 Black Bamboo.
Fontwell: 12.30 Alexandra Romanov, 1.00 Tip Top Mountain, 1.30 Aviles, 2.05 Slipway, 2.40 Irish Hill, 3.15 Calvinist, 3.50 Briery Express.
“When he got injured [in early 2021], it was just before the spring festivals,” Snowden said. “And he’d won the Rising Stars and finished second in the Pendil at Kempton. I phoned up Wiggy [one of his owners] and said, ‘He’s got this niggle, but don’t worry, we’ll win the Paddy Power in 2022.’
“It’s all very well saying that then, but to get him back from injury and nursing him back fit and getting the prep run into him, it was pretty tight. But we knew off his mark, this was the year for this race.”
Earlier on the card, Joseph O’Brien’s Banbridge jumped accurately throughout on the way to a six-length success in the Grade Two Arkle Trial Novice Chase. The former Derby-winning jockey will now aim him towards either the Arkle or the Turners Novice Chase in March.
“That was only his second run over fences but he seems to have taken to it well and he is an exciting horse going forwards, that’s for sure,” O’Brien said. “We weren’t sure about coming back in trip [from his debut], it is a different challenge but there was only one way to find out.”
Banbridge is a 16-1 chance for the Arkle Trophy over two miles at the Festival meeting, and around 12-1 for the Turners over an extra half-mile.
Sunday’s TV races
Willie Mullins is the all-time leading trainer at Cheltenham’s Festival meeting in March but sends only a handful of runners to the track this side of Christmas, so the fact that he feels Dads Lad (2.55) deserves an outing in the Greatwood Hurdle on Sunday could well be significant.
Dads Lad was Mullins’s first pre-Christmas winner at Cheltenham for a decade when he landed a two-mile chase at the October meeting off a mark of 135, and the seven-year-old can race off his hurdles mark of 128 on Sunday.
That could give Dads Lad a slight edge in a highly competitive field and he looks the pick of the prices at around 11-2.
Cheltenham 1.45 This has the makings of a match between Nube Negra and Edwardstone, assuming that Alan King is happy for the latter to take his chance on the ground. Last season’s Arkle winner was beaten on his final start last season but his overall form during his first campaign over fences suggests that he should have enough to pass this first test outside novice company.
Fontwell Park 2.05 Slipway concluded his novice campaign with an impressive success over three-and-three-quarter miles at Perth and looks the type to continue improving. He had an alternative engagement at Cheltenham but Ben Pauling has opted for this less competitive test and he has useful conditional Luca Morgan taking off 3lb too.
Cheltenham 2.20 Does He Know found it all happening too quickly in the hurly-burly of the Festival last season but he should have gained valuable experience in the process and has always looked likely to come into his own over extended trips. He got no further than the first on his seasonal debut at Kelso but a return to something close to his Grade Two-winning form at Ascot in February would give him a real chance to defy top weight.
Cheltenham 3.30 Fennor Cross was an impressive course-and-distance winner at the October meeting and while this is a significant step up in class, he has as much scope for improvement as his major rivals. At around 5-1, he is worth an interest to further improve John McConnell’s excellent strike rate with his runners in Britain.
