Cheltenham Gold Cup Betting Guide

"The only concern I had was traffic and congestion (in a big field), but he took to it. He’s a very easy ride. He just does as much as you ask him to do – nothing really flash – but every time you ask for a little bit of an effort, he delivers. He has the right profile (for the Gold Cup) - he’s an RSA winner and is four from four at Cheltenham. There’s every reason for Bobs Worth to be at the head of the market."

Barry Geraghty

3rd December 2012

"He has really got a bit to prove in that he has only really had one run outside novice chasing and that was in a handicap so he has got to do it against the big boys. It was a good performance in the Hennessy as it was in the RSA last year. It is a step up and I would have liked to have run him more on the way. He had one little hiccup himself and the whole winter has been the same – the ground has been desperate. His one opportunity to run came when the ground was bottomless and I am glad we did not go for that. He is a horse who is a bit more fragile than some of them and he wouldn’t want a hard race in heavy ground beforehand."

Nicky Henderson

18th February 2013

"He jumped beautifully up to then and it was just unfortunate. I think he'll go for the Gold Cup, and the better the ground the better his chance. He stayed on well in the Ryanair a year ago, and he stayed on again in the King George."

Philip Hobbs

16th February 2013

"He's grand, no problem. I thought Denis (O'Regan) gave him a great ride and it's nice to win a race like that. You have to enjoy those victories. This horse has got a lot of guts and he's a very good horse on his day. He'll have a quiet week or two now, then we will go straight to Cheltenham. If you're not in, you can't win. I'm not saying he would win a Gold Cup, but he might just get placed in one. I've been talking to Phil Smith (head of handicapping at the British Horseracing Authority) and he says the horse is going to be up in the 160s now. It's very hard for horses. You can break their hearts in big handicaps off top weight. They become hard races for them and there's good money in the Gold Cup if you finish in the places.

I don't think he's bothered about the ground and he won his two hurdle races last year on what the times suggested was almost good ground at both Cheltenham and Aintree. He'll run up the hill in the Gold Cup and when you look at some of the Irish horses in it you just don't know if they are going to get three and a quarter miles the way they have been running. They have to prove it yet and it is three and a quarter not just three miles. We'll give it a try if he's right. We'll give them a go."

Malcolm Jefferson

28th January 2013

"It was the best run he's ever had at this time of year. In the past he has never really run well during the winter, he's really a spring horse. This year he seems to be running much better during the winter, so if he can improve in the spring as he has in previous years, we'll be very happy. He'll go straight to Cheltenham now, for either the Ryanair or the Gold Cup. Mouse likes to run his horses at Christmas and go straight to Cheltenham and they always go there in top condition."

Michael O'Leary

31st December 2012

"My preference with the ground drying out would be the Gold Cup. Bryan Cooper has ridden him before and he's available, so that is the way I would like to go with him. We are going to discuss it next week. He'll stay forever, it's just if he has enough toe for the Ryanair and I don't think he would. He runs above himself at Cheltenham and he's done nothing wrong this year. He's just not got his head in front. He ran well at Down Royal, he ran well in the handicap at Newbury (Hennessy) and ran a blinder at Leopardstown."

Mouse Morris

22nd February 2013

"The bounce factor doesn’t worry me at all. There’s nearly seven weeks between the two races so he can have a break and we can get him back again. I'm not a great believer in bounce factors. I think all he can do is improve. It was heartbreaking to see him mugged on the line at Cheltenham but yet again he showed all his doubters wrong. He can come back and hopefully is as good as ever. There wasn’t a bother on him afterwards, which was a relief because in top-class races you always worry a little bit about injuries, but he's never had a horrendous injury. They have only been very minor, they just take time to mend. He goes straight to the Gold Cup now."

Nigel Twiston-Davies

6th February 2013

"His preparation is all going to plan. We didn’t run at Newbury the other day because the ground had gone completely. Both Robert and I felt that a hard race in very, very soft ground would not achieve anything and I think that was the right decision. He is going to have gallop after racing on Saturday at Kempton on grass which should get him spot on.  He was only six when he won the Cheltenham Gold Cup and then wasn’t just at his very best last season. I cannot tell you that he is completely different this year but he is in very good order.

I boxed him and Binocular up last Saturday and drove them twice around the village before going to Sandown for a good gallop. Some cheek-pieces might just sharpen him up – there is no point being proud – they are not the prettiest  things in the world but if they make him go faster why not. He has regained the King George and maybe he can regain the Gold Cup.”

Nicky Henderson

18th February 2013

"Kauto won this as a six-year-old and went on to win the Gold Cup in the same season, and this horse is very, very exciting. He jumps, he has speed and he stays very well. I said coming into today that if he won he would go for the Gold Cup and that is the plan. You couldn't leave him in his box on Gold Cup day after that performance.

He definitely won't run in the King George, I don't think Kempton is his track. He won't run anywhere over Christmas, and he might even go straight to Cheltenham as he does go very well fresh. We could give him a run in something like the Aon but I certainly wouldn't be worried about going straight there with him. He wants to be fresh and I'm not going to run him through the winter in the mud. He could be really interesting, come Cheltenham. I thought he didn't get the credit he deserved at Wetherby [winning the Charlie Hall Chase]."

Paul Nicholls

24th November 2012

"People don't believe you when you say you have left a lot to work on with horses in these prep races - they think it is a matter of getting your excuses in early - but, trust me, that would have been like his first run of the season for him. So it was a great result, with so much to build on fitness-wise."

Paul Nicholls

10th February 2013

"I imagine we are gearing this year towards the Gold Cup. He'll probably start off in the John Durkan and he's entered in the King George, but he'll be entered in Leopardstown (the Lexus Chase) at Christmas, too. He's a lovely big horse, he's built to carry 12 stones over three miles, which is ideally what you want in a chaser. I think the key to him is that he's so relaxed. I've never seen him at full strength or full speed, he just does what he has to do. That's just the way he is I think.

We'll just plot a course as it comes between now and March. There are various races we can go for, but we'll see how he gets through his first race and then plan the second one. I don't like having a map the whole way out, we'll take each day as it comes, because you don't know what's going to happen from one day to the next. You might have to change plans, the horse might get sick, he might get lame, all sorts of things can happen, which is why I prefer to take it one race at a time."

Willie Mullins

14th November 2012

"It looks like there’s more improvement. Every year he improves in the spring. He’s been to Cheltenham twice and he loves the place. He loves that hill, so I’m hoping he can show what he did the last two years, that he keeps improving coming into March."

Willie Mullins

11th February 2013

"The winner is obviously a very good horse. I think Cheltenham is a unique track, so hopefully the result might be slightly different. He's run a fantastic race, wonderful, and it puts us bang on track again and we're looking forward to March. Historically with this horse he's never particularly done well before Christmas – I don't know why – but since Kempton he's just been a different horse. He didn't run very well at all at Kempton – it was just a non-event – but I knew he'd bounce back from that."

David Bridgwater

11th February 2013