IL RIDOTO can claim victory in the AIS December Gold Cup Handicap Chase (Premier Handicap) (GBB Race) (1.50pm) at Cheltenham on Saturday afternoon – if the meeting beats the cold snap and gets the go-ahead again with a precautionary inspection called for 7.30am in the morning.
Many times the Paddy Power Gold Cup, won last month by Ga Law, has been a good guide to this similar race and it could provide a pointer this time. Paul Nicholls' Il Ridoto finished fourth in the prestigious extended 2m4½f handicap and would have been much closer without a mistake at the last fence. With the first three – Ga Law, French Dynamite and Midnight River – not lining up this time he looks a worthy favourite to take advantage.
Others who ran in the Paddy Power are also on retrieval missions including Stolen Silver, who unseated Sam Twiston-Davies three out when going well, Deyrann De Carjac (fifth), Il Ridoto's stable-mate Simply The Betts (seventh) and Storm Control (eighth). But Nicholls' five-year-old looks to the most progressive of those and can come out on top.
