The form of Coneygree’s seven-length success in last weekend’s Denman Chase at Newbury received an official endorsement on Tuesday when Mark Bradstock’s eight-year-old novice was raised 13lb in the handicap ratings to a new mark of 166. Coneygree is now rated 1lb ahead of Many Clouds, the Hennessy Gold Cup winner, and is joint second-highest rated British chaser behind Silviniaco Conti, the favourite for next month’s Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Coneygree was a Grade Two winner as a hurdler in the 2012-13 season, but spent 22 months on the sidelines before making his novice chasing debut in a Grade Two event at Newbury in late November. Having beaten Dell’ Arca by a length-and-a-half, he went on to win the Grade One Feltham Novice Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day by 40 lengths before his impressive victory last weekend on his first start outside novice company.
Those three front-running successes have been enough to propel Coneygree through the ratings to sit alongside Bobs Worth, the 2013 Gold Cup winner, on his new mark, and in the handicappers’ opinion at least, he would be a worthy contender for the Gold Cup at Cheltenham should his owners decide to run him in the Festival’s feature event rather than the RSA Novice Chase two days earlier.
“I don’t think he knows his rating, and I don’t know how they work them out,” Bradstock said on Tuesday. “It’s quite a difference to Silviniaco Conti [on 174], but it’s not bad for a novice. I don’t take great note of ratings unless I’m entering up, but it’s very, very exciting to have anything to do with him. It’s what everybody dreams about. There’s no pressure on us at all to make any decisions yet, and no one knows what the ground is going to be like. They don’t even know what the weather is going to do on Friday, let alone 12 March.
“I don’t think that in any shape or form an extra quarter-mile [in the Gold Cup] would hinder him. I don’t think that would be a problem at all. What has been so amazing with him has been his jumping, though I think that my long-term plan with him has been clobbered. That was for the Hennessy Gold Cup [Handicap at Newbury] next season, but he’ll certainly carry a lot more weight now than he would have done when I concocted it.”
As expected, Coneygree was left in the Gold Cup at the latest declaration stage on Tuesday, and is top-priced at 16-1 to become the first novice to win since Captain Christy in 1974. His price for the RSA Chase ranges from 3-1 favourite with Ladbrokes to 7-1 third-favourite, behind Don Poli and Kings Palace, with Paddy Power.
“For the RSA he would be one of the oldest, and in a race like that, maturity must help,” Bradstock said. “Not many novices run in the Gold Cup, but right from the word go, he’s been pretty convincing and he’s done nothing wrong. He’s a very talented horse and long may it last. Luckily we don’t have to make a decision yet and the main thing is to keep him sound and healthy.”
Faugheen, the favourite for the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham next month, will go straight to the Festival without a prep race, Willie Mullins, the gelding’s trainer, confirmed on Tuesday. Mullins had suggested last week that Faugheen might line up for either the Red Mills Trial Hurdle at Gowran Park on Saturday or the Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton the same afternoon.
“He worked this morning, we were very happy with him and he’s 100%,” Mullins said. “We had a chat with Ruby [Walsh, Mullins’s principal jockey] this morning and we just felt we’d enough done and we don’t need to run him again. We’re happy with where we are and all being well, he’ll go straight there.”
Mullins also reported on Tuesday that Annie Power, who has not raced since finishing second to More Of That in the World Hurdle at Cheltenham last March, remains on course to run at the Festival meeting.
“I’m very happy with her, so far, so good,” the trainer said. “We’ve not had any more setbacks since Christmas. At the moment, [the Mares’ Hurdle] is the way we’d be looking.”
Mullins saddled a treble at Clonmel on Tuesday which included the victory of Roi Des Francs in the feature event, a Grade Three novice hurdle over two miles and six furlongs. Roi Des Francs beat Fine Article by two-and-a-quarter lengths and is now 14-1 from 25-1 with Ladbrokes for the Albert Bartlett Novice Hurdle at Cheltenham next month.
