Jamie Snowden Seeking Back-To-Back Coral Gold Cup Victories

The Lambourn based trainer, Jamie Snowden, is bidding to win the £250,000 Coral Gold Cup for the second year running after Datsalrightgino’s emphatic victory twelve months ago. He is due to be represented in this year’s three and a quarter mile test by second season novice chaser, Colonel Harry, also owned by last year’s winning connections, The GD Partnership.

Current joint 8/1 favourite with sponsors Coral, Colonel Harry has followed a similar profile to last year’s winner having won a Grade 2 Novice Chase last season and being unexposed at this trip. Snowden commented: “They are quite different horses, Colonel Harry and Datsalrightgino, but they have followed very similar paths through their careers. They were both very good novice hurdlers, placed in Grade 1s and started off in the same novice chase at Chepstow. Gavin [Sheehan] thinks he is sure to stay, obviously without trying it you don’t know but it is the approach we took with Datsalrightgino, hoping we would have a bit of mileage left in our handicap mark by going up in trip. It obviously worked last year, and we are hoping lightning can strike twice.

“He did a lot of winning over two miles early on in his career, he was quite a free going individual, but actually the older he has got, the more relaxed he’s got, the more settled he has become, and this race has been on the agenda for a while.

“He goes left-handed, he’s better left-handed. We had a prep run up at Carlisle and he jumped out to this left, he’s always gone slightly left when he’s gone on a right-handed track so he will certainly suit a left-handed track.

“He’s bounced out of his run at Carlisle, I didn’t want to bring him to the Coral Gold Cup Gallops Morning as he’s a different horse to Datsalrightgino who was quite a stuffy, big, burly individual. Colonel Harry is quite tall, angular, an athletic kind of horse who didn’t need to come here. We got the prep run into him and now the rain has come we can get him on the grass in Lambourn.  He loves soft ground so the softer the better. We were hoping the rain would come so as long as it is good-to-soft or softer, that should suit him down to the ground.”

Dan Skelton brought four horses  to the Coral Gold Cup Gallops morning on Tuesday. Skelton confirmed that Heltenham, undefeated in three starts at Newbury, will be confirmed for the Coral Gold Cup but will also receive an entry on the Friday.

Lac De Constance, a faller on his last start, will feature amongst Skelton’s runners across the Coral Gold Cup weekend: “He will run on the Friday. Today will have done him the world of good. Towards the end there he is starting to come off the bridle, he definitely wants the three miles nowadays so I think you will see a big improvement in him going up to three miles.”

Trainer Ben Pauling was accompanied by Harry Redknapp to watch two of his horses have a racecourse gallop at the annual Coral Gold Cup gallops morning. Amongst the quartet of horses brought by Pauling was The Juxebox Man who could feature in the Grade 2 John Francome Novices’ Chase over two and half miles on the first day of the Coral Gold Cup meeting.

Pauling commented: “He is a huge talent; he ran very well at Cheltenham and Aintree last year just getting pipped both times. He is a lovely horse for the future, he jumps very well and what I saw this morning was more than I could have hoped for.

“He hadn’t been away from home, and it’s just given an opportunity to get a good blow into him back on grass. He’s not necessarily a brilliant workhorse, on the all-weather he just does what he needs to do. You put him on the grass here and he just motors. It will have been an invaluable morning for him.”

Redknapp’s other horse to feature was his Cheltenham Festival winner, Shakem Up’arry whose plans remain uncertain. Pauling added: “He owes us nothing. His plans have been slightly up in the air, I wasn’t sure whether to go veterans’ chasing with him or not.

“We took him for an away day last week to Windsor and he worked brilliantly. We brought him here this morning thinking he would work brilliantly, and he worked very average. That is him, he is not being ruled out of the race. He did this last year, he pulled up first time out at Stratford last year and then came here and ran a blinder, he just did too much early doors. I’m not worried about him, we will get home, check him over but he is part of the furniture, and we know him inside out. We know he can throw in some howling pieces sometimes so it wasn’t his day but we will be fine.”

Pauling is due to be represented by Henry’s Friend in this year’s Coral Gold Cup who made his seasonal reappearance at Newbury back over hurdles. He added: “We’ve had a bit of an interrupted process leading up to the Coral Gold Cup which is our main aim. I wasn’t sure if I would run him or not, I felt that running him here at Newbury was going to hopefully bring him to life and it really did. He came back a completely different horse to the one that went into the race. He had a lovely gallop round, qualified for the Pertemps as there was only four runners and has come back today for a freshen up. His work was very good so we were delighted with that. Nico [de Boinville] rode him and was really quite taken with how he went so I was very pleased.

“We tried to see where we were stamina wise in the Amateur Chase but he just didn’t turn up that day, the Reynoldstown left its mark. I’ve got no concerns over the trip, we know he likes the track so fingers crossed. He just wouldn’t want the ground to go heavy.”

The two-day Coral Gold Cup meeting arrives at Newbury on Friday 29^th November and Saturday 30^th November.

Discounted tickets are available until 11:59pm on Friday 22^nd November with Under 18s going free.

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