THOSE who maintain that Beef Or Salmon has an aversion to Cheltenham are unlikely to be persuaded of his Gold Cup prospects by one further demonstration of his contrasting love of Leopardstown. Two new factors, however, were yesterday filling his connections with hope that he could finally take steeplechasing’s greatest prize at the fourth attempt.
It was not the fact of his 12-length win from Hedgehunter in the Irish Hennessy. That was only to be expected of a 2-5 chance in a thin grade one race. The faith of Michael Hourigan, who trains the ten-year-old, comes from previously elusive physical wellbeing, combined with the theory that the Gold Cup field has seldom looked less formidable.
Hourigan and his team have spent years treating the suspect back of Beef Or Salmon and believe that he is now showing the benefit. Apart from one, heartstopping blunder at the fifth-last, he jumped impressively here for Paul Carberry and engaged overdrive at the last to leave his only genuine rival, Hedgehunter, labouring.
“Paul said his jumping was too good for a change,” Hourigan reported. “He just took a chance with one but he got away with it. If I can get him to Cheltenham in the health he is in now, he’s got every chance.”
Willie Mullins expressed himself satisfied with Hedgehunter but, even in an open year, he looks an unlikely Gold Cup winner. A second Grand National is far more likely and Ladbrokes shortened him to 8-1 joint-favourite.
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Beef Or Salmon’s fifth grade one win on this course delighted Carberry. “He was clever not to fall,” he said. “And that fifth gear — wow, you don’t get that often at the end of three miles. He was a sick horse last year, and it took The Fellow a long time to win the Gold Cup, too.”
Most bookmakers left his Gold Cup price unchanged, on the basis that yesterday’s race had proved nothing bar his fitness. The shame of the weekend was that a duel between Monkerhostin and Take The Stand was lost with the abandonment of the Aon Chase — a race that now looks unlikely to be rescheduled.
The British Horseracing Board will rule today but the necessary Levy Board funds are unlikely to be released for a race that attracted only four intended runners — especially as Philip Hobbs is now inclined to take Monkerhostin straight to Cheltenham.
A Leopardstown meeting that habitually stirs the pre-Festival mood had little impact on the markets, though Paddy Power contrived to cut Mister Hight to 11-4 favourite for the cavalry charge of the Triumph Hurdle on the back of a workmanlike win.
Mr Nosie was off the bridle for a mile before justifying favouritism in the Deloitte Novices’ Hurdle, while Arthur Moore admitted that he had not had Cheltenham on his mind for The Railway Man, winner of the grade one novice chase.
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The strongest tip for Cheltenham came through a handicap double for Jessie Harrington, whose stable form is fully restored. Moscow Flyer is due to work on the Curragh today before defending his Champion Chase title and Macs Joy will run next weekend before heading to the Champion Hurdle.
FESTIVAL BETTING
GOLD CUP: William Hill: 5-1 Beef Or Salmon, 6-1 Monkerhostin, 7-1 Kingscliff, 10-1 Celestial Gold, 11-1 Take The Stand, 12-1 War Of Attrition, 14-1 Hedgehunter, 16-1 One Knight, 20-1 others.