Tom Scudamore has been passed fit to take the ride on Kings Palace, the 8-1 favourite for Saturday’s Paddy Power Gold Cup at Cheltenham. The jockey has not ridden since 13 October, when ligaments in his knee were damaged in a fall at Huntingdon.
Now in his 18th season, Scudamore originally estimated that he would be out of action “for the next couple of days”. While the injury has clearly proved more serious than expected, David Pipe, the trainer of Kings Palace, is confident that his rider is in sufficiently good shape, having seen him in action on the schooling grounds at his Pond House yard.
“He’s done enough schooling over the last two days, if it was going to twinge or anything like that,” Pipe said on Wednesday. “Obviously, at some point he will have a fall and that will be different but he’s done a lot of schooling.”
On Wednesday night, Scudamore’s agent, Dave Roberts, confirmed that the rider had been passed fit after examination by a specialist and the plan is for him to return to the saddle at Cheltenham on Friday. That remains conditional on a racecourse medical officer also passing him fit.
Despite the prominence of Kings Palace in the betting for Saturday’s race, Pipe remains cool about his chances, though he expects to let the horse take his opportunity if routine pre-race tests do not throw up anything unexpected. “Tom schooled him yesterday [Tuesday] and that’s probably the best he’s jumped. He hasn’t been jumping as extravagantly as last year. The best he’s schooled was yesterday with Tom on and up until that point, we weren’t sure whether we’d go to the Paddy Power but, all being well and everything, we probably will now.”
Kings Palace has a mixed record at Cheltenham, having won four times there but been disappointing at the last two Festivals. On that subject, Pipe said: “It depends which race you look at. At the end of the day, whether it’s in the Paddy Power or whatever, he’s got to go and do it. You could call him a bit of a talking horse, he’s won in small fields. Now he’s got to go and prove it on the big day.”
Pipe added of his team for the three-day meeting at Cheltenham that he had “lots that go there with nice chances”. He named Herbert Park, Bidourey, Batavir and Fingertips as among those that gave him most hope of success.
