Take Road To Riches on Final Day

3.20 CHELTENHAM -  BETFRED GOLD CUP

SILVINIACO CONTI: A surprising failure a year ago when looking sure to win between the last two, but finished weakly. Has since rebuilt his reputation thanks to cheekpieces and treatment for gastric ulcers – the latter a decidedly contentious subject in itself. Has the best form in the book, but it still niggles that he’s never won on a genuinely stiff track, and the Gold Cup is not the sort of race where practice makes perfect. Vulnerable to an improver.

MANY CLOUDS: Underrated as a novice, and has thrived as expected in his second season. Reported to have had “a serious wobble” after winning an attritional Hennessy, he deserves huge credit for coming back to land the BetBright Cup at this course in January. An enormously likeable gelding, he relishes a fight, and would be seen to best effect if the ground came up testing. Recent rain is a plus in that regard.

ROAD TO RICHES: One of a pair of Galway Plate winners among the market leaders, he has improved markedly for a change of regime, and still looks to be progressing at this stage. Workmanlike in some eyes when landing the Lexus, he struck me as one who was overcoming adverse conditions, and is definitely undervalued by the market. It was amusing to hear his trainer talking up the favourite when asked about his chances recently. Big player.

DJAKADAM: Too young as a six-year-old to win a Gold Cup, according to the experts, but so were Golden Miller, Mill House, Long Run and others. He certainly lacked experience when falling in last year’s JLT, and plenty wrote him off after pulling up in the Hennessy. That looked a premature call when he returned to demolish his rivals in the Thyestes, and he’s the darkest horse of all in the contest. A bit more experience would be a plus, but he’s not taken lightly.

SUMMARY: Many Clouds has really come of age, and the rain which has hit Cheltenham today brings him strongly into contention, but narrow preference is for Road To Riches, who defied heavy gorund to win the Lexus with more in hand than the distances suggest, and he’s capable of taking his form to new heights now.  Djakadam lacks the experience to make him a confident shout, but remains a horse of tremendous potential, and is feared most.