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I think people are just trying to find holes in Thistlecrack to convince themselves there is no value in the price. If 5/1 isn’t for you, it isn’t for you but you can’t argue it’s a top class horse that deserves it’s place near the top of the market. Go and back Djakadam at 16/1 and enjoy a solid run for your money, maybe sneak a place if use are lucky. Jumped well and clever, still got it’s tanking spark and stays all day. Anyone who says it wasn’t an impressive debut knows nothing about racing
Yes, he has to take on better horses but Cue Card from the same stable is fav or near enough fav for all the big races leading up to the Gold Cup
They must rate Thistlecrack a very good chance and at least near enough on a par with Cue Card and probably better with natural progression otherwise they would have stayed World Hurdle route.
Don Cossack misses the first half of the season and Coneygree has been sidelined a long time, still to be seen if he’s as good as before. Vautour would be the one main danger at this stage imo but although I think he will stay the Gold Cup does tend to be brutal and any stamina doubts would put him to the test.Gaelic Warrior Gold Cup Winner 2026
Steve Melish just said on RUK: “His debut was okay, but GC talk is a country mile away”….
And if the race had been covered by RUK Mellish would probably have been wetting himself. Each time I listen to him he sounds more and more like the Alas Smith And Jones head-to-head character.
Horse did everything anyone might have expected and Gold Cup talk is clearly quite reasonable until the horse does something to suggest otherwise.
Agreed, Ruby, but you need to make certain assumptions based on evidence. Mellish is right on the face of it: the Gold Cup is a country mile away from a novice ‘chase at Chepstow. But this is no promising youngster untested at the top level. I’m not sure what kind of argument even Mellish could muster against the points I make above.
Come the day, if all those prominent in the betting now turn up, then 6s will prove, in retrospect, to be skinny. But as things stand, there’s a fair possibility that none of the 4 big guns will be there.
Steve, the thing I enjoy most about NH is that after the season proper starts in October, everything that counts most is the build up to Cheltenham. There will be a lot of races and horses to talk about and most interesting to see will be the different opinions people have and who get’s it RIGHT in the end.
I’d like to see him at both meetings prior to the Feltham (Cheltenham and Newbury – both tracks he seems to handle very well).
I’d imagine it would be the 3m chase on the Cheltenham Saturday next then, but it will probably turn into an egg and spoon race with a couple of runners as nothing else will want to oppose.
At least it gets a sighter of the Cheltenham fences if nothing else and with a lot of the opposition fragile it makes sense to at least think of the Gold Cup and as they said earlier better to try then wonder what might have been.
Wouldn’t take 11/2 though !
Iris’s Gift wouldn’t be within 20lbs of Thistlecrack. That was as fine a fencing debut as you could hope to see round a tricky enough track. Hills immediately went 4s for the GC.
Apart from the horse having an astonishing engine and no quirks, he has proven stamina and appears to jump like a buck.
Half of those prominent in the GC betting couldn’t be backed even to turn up. 6s still available now but that will be gone by tomorrow, I think.
Thistlecrack 20lb better than Iris Gift? You have a short memory. Iris Gift, Barracouda + Limestone Lad would all have beaten Alpha des Obeaux easily. I agree ++ it was an excellent debut, but the record of staying hurdlers moving up to the much more competitive staying chases is very poor. Hope I’m wrong, love the Tizzards
i must admit i was impressed with thistlecrack but wouldn’t be rushing to lump on for the gold cup. at least not yet lol. got to remember that coneygree was a novice when winning the gold cup. we need some new talent as the field at the moment remind me of a 5 fur h.cap. get diff result if they met every week.
i do wish him well though
Heartwarming to see such a fine horse run midweek.
Would love to see him in the flesh tackle the row of fences down the back at my local track Warwick.A very good start but come on…he did what he should have done…4/1 is ridiculous in my eyes…lets at least see him bear a decent horse first…the top 20 in the Gold Cup betting would beat Aqalim with the minimum of fuss!
Pleasing start but a long, long way to go IMO…I’d still prefer to take 8’a for the World Hurdle than 6’s for the Gold Cup if I had to do one or the other!
8/1 with PP looks okay to me if he should fail to show the expected improvement over fences…
Who’s Steve….?
The NORMAL ONE !!!!
Form of Thistlecrack’s first run/win is nowhere near Gold Cup standard and it’s right to say any of the six behind him in the Gold Cup betting would’ve won equally as easily. Needs to improve around two stones from today. It’s only one performance and things could change, but Thistlecrack jumped as well as anyone could hope for on chasing debut. Standing off well, shortening up when needed and always accurate. Those top class hurdlers that don’t go on to make top class chasers are usually not natural chasers – on this one run Thistlecrack is a natural chaser. Therefore, it is now probable Thistlecrack will make a chaser… and we already know has top class ability because of his hurdles record.
On paper/ability the Gold Cup looks a cracking race, real quality animals at the top of the market. But will it be come March? Don Cossack would win most Gold Cups on this year’s running, but is injured, missing the first half of the season, may not make it to Cheltenham and even if doing so may lose some ability after problems. Same goes for 2015 winner Coneygree, who is injury prone over both hurdles and fences. At least he’s a genuine definite stayer. Cue Card will be turning up as an 11 year old and – although no sign of it yet – most 11 year olds are on the downgrade. Not certain to stay either, although far more likely than Doumen who – with Ricci having better staying prospects – a very unlikely starter. Vautour is top class, but appeared barely to stay 3 miles around Kempton, let alone 3m2f110yrds around a stamina sapping Cheltenham. Third Ricci runner Djakadam is by far his most natural stayer, but is he good enough? Runner-up twice in two Gold Cups. If this season’s Gold Cup is an a above average renewal probably not… will it be though?
Am already on Don Cossack so hope he makes it there. Considering the above, Thistlecrack isn’t as badly priced as you’d normally think. 15% chance is probably about right. However, if I was betting now rather take 16/1 Djakadam.
Value Is EverythingChris Cook reporting that Tizzard has suggested King George might come under consideration. And of the Betfair Chase the trainer said “I don’t suppose we better go to Haydock, had we?”
He must think this horse is something right enough
Chris Cook reporting that Tizzard has suggested King George might come under consideration. And of the Betfair Chase the trainer said “I don’t suppose we better go to Haydock, had we?”
He must think this horse is something right enough
I was thinking that, this quote:
“He needs another novice, but he’s not a five-year-old, he’s had plenty of hurdle races. After that [Cheltenham] I think you could do what you wanted.”
Makes it sound like if he wins a novice race at Cheltenham on the saturday of the open meeting they’ll run him in the King George.
Are they considering the “Steel Plate and Sections Novices’ Chase” over 2m 4 1/2f (won by More Of That, Taquin De Seuil or Champagne West in the past) or the “Cheltenham Club Novices’ Chase” over 3m (won by Kings Palace, Le Bec, Our Father or Join Together in the past few years).
Well, both races haven’t thrown up many, if any Grade 1 Festival winners in the past and are usually 4-6 runners events.
The races I would consider would be either the Worcester Novices’ Chase (3m) or the Berkshire Novices’ Chase (2m4f) at Newbury’s Hennessy Meeting. He handles the track well and the races could be run at a more realistic pace. So we could find out more at Newbury rather than at Cheltenham.
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