The JP McManus team admits their reigning Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup champion Inothewayurthinkin has to buck up his ideas if he’s to try to defend his title at the upcoming festival.
The Gavin Cromwell-trained star was beaten a total of 94 lengths on his first two starts of this season and was well beaten in the Irish Gold Cup earlier this month when taking a tired fall at the final fence.
Inothewayurthinkin was beaten in three starts before ultimately denying Galopin Des Champs a Gold Cup hat-trick last season. However, those three efforts at least contained enough encouragement to have him supplemented into steeplechasing’s “Blue Riband”.
It has been a very different story this term and, in the meantime, McManus finds himself topping the Gold Cup betting with Fact To File, the impressive winner of that Irish Gold Cup at Leopardstown. He also has another leading contender in Spillane’s Tower.
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Rarely has a Gold Cup champion failed to sparkle so comprehensively in a following campaign but, despite that, Inothewayurthinkin remains a general 16/1 to pull off a dramatic return to form.
“Fingers crossed, he’s going [to Cheltenham] but he’ll have to show up in a bit of work, and everyone be happy with him, in the next 10 days or so. But they’re working on those lines, that he will be going. But he’ll need to show something in his work.
“He’s been disappointing. You’d forgive him the first day, needing the run or whatever, but he’s been disappointing since,” the champion owner’s racing manager Frank Berry conceded on Monday.
Mark Walsh’s decision to get off Inothewayurthinkin and ride Fact To File at the Dublin Racing Festival was vindicated in style as last season’s Ryanair Chase winner beat Gaelic Warrior by five lengths.
It proved his stamina at three miles and although the Gold Cup is another extended two furlongs, Fact To File is a general 4/1 favourite in ante-post lists despite having been taken out of the Gold Cup at an earlier entry stage. He will need to be supplemented if he’s to line up.
However, he’s also odds-on in some lists to try to defend his Ryanair title instead. With four weeks to the start of the festival, the McManus team insist they are keeping their options open.
“We will look at all the options nearer the time. There’s genuinely no decision on it, and [we are] looking at all the options, if the other two turn up in the Gold Cup, Jimmy Mangan’s [Spillane’s Tower] and if the other horse comes back to form. Everything is a bit up in the air now at the minute,” Berry added.
Another horse in the reckoning for both the Gold Cup and the Ryanair is Heart Wood. He had the thankless task of chasing home Fact To File in last year’s Ryanair. His trainer Henry de Bromhead is more certain of his horse’s festival target.
“We have two entries so I hate committing fully but I’d say we’re like 85 per cent for the Ryanair. I think we’ll go there and ride him a fraction more positive by the sounds of what Darragh [O’Keeffe, jockey] was saying,” de Bromhead said. “He’s hitting that age now so I’d say he’s definitely improved a little bit. I would hope he should run well.”
In the shorter term, cross-channel interest this weekend could revolve around the former Irish Grand National winner Intense Raffles. Trainer Tom Gibney has left the grey in Saturday’s marathon Virgin Bet Eider Chase at Newcastle.
The four-mile-plus test hasn’t been won by an Irish raider since Portrait King in 2012 but testing ground conditions could suit Intense Raffles, who has been pulled up in his last two starts in the Thyestes and the Welsh National.
John McConnell has left Bodhisattva in the Eider for which the dour staying Mr Vango is currently topweight.
Emmet Mullins has given himself two options for Kempton’s lucrative Ladbrokes Trophy Chase. The Co Carlow-based trainer left in the course winner Chance Another One and Rising Dust at Monday’s latest acceptance stage. Rising Dust has won his last three starts at Thurles.
Monday’s scheduled card at Fairyhouse had to be cancelled due to saturated ground conditions. The Clonmel course is also currently unfit for racing in advance of its fixture on Friday. The fixture originally had to be cancelled due to waterlogging last week.
“Following 18mm of rain over the weekend, parts of the track at Clonmel remain waterlogged and unfit for racing. Where raceable the ground is heavy. Possibility of up to 20mm (approx) of rain this week. Situation being monitored,” the IHRB posted.
The next Irish action is at Punchestown on Wednesday, which features the Grade Three Matchbook Quevega Hurdle. Seven runners are left in the contest, including the half-sisters Cousin Kate and Baby Kate. Both horses are out of the Grade One-winning mare Augusta Kate.
