I Said All Along Don Cossack Was A Gold Cup Horse. I Was Right

We had a superb week at Cheltenham – three winners and four placings was more than I could have hoped for.

Gold Cup Champion
Don Cossack has come out of the Gold Cup very well. He had a bruise on his foot after it but he’s fine now. He’s in good form. The drying conditions all week worked in our favour. He’s a different animal on a sounder surface.

I was both confident and anxious during the race. He got a great passage throughout and Bryan gave him a brilliant ride, everything worked out perfectly on the day.
Cue Card was travelling well when he departed but it was still a long way out and it’s hard to tell if he would have been a big threat near the finish – a bit like us in the King George, you just don’t know how it would have panned out, we were unlucky at Kempton and Cue Card was unlucky at Cheltenham.

We’ll bypass Aintree with Don Cossack, there’s not much to be gained by going there. He’s a Gold Cup winner now and we’ll prepare him for the Punchestown Gold Cup.

I was quoted four years ago saying that I thought Don Cossack was a Gold Cup horse and I know I was a bit over excited at the time but I was proven right.

We’re so lucky to have him.

Diamond King
Diamond King was a great success for us in the Coral Cup, and I thought Davy Russell gave him a fantastic ride. We felt he was well-handicapped but you need luck in those big field handicaps. For a moment I thought he might not get the splits!

We’ll send him to Punchestown for the World Series Hurdle next. The handicapper has given him a mark of 159 so that’s his handicapping days over. Aintree is a possibility – I’ll speak to the owners but chasing is going to be his game. He wouldn’t be a horse for deep winter ground but we’ll definitely go chasing with him next autumn.

Cause Of Causes
Cause Of Causes was unreal, he’s a brilliant horse. He just comes alive at Cheltenham. That’s twice he’s won at the Cheltenham Festival for us, what an achievement. At the top of the hill I thought we were too far out and we might finish fifth or sixth but once he got past one he absolutely flew. He’s a little star.

Always A Hero
No More Heroes was a great horse and that’s the downside of racing. We have to deal with the ups and downs and put his death behind us now but he’s a huge loss for the yard.

He was top class and it’s extremely difficult for us to lose a horse like him, he’ll be greatly missed.

I’ve ten left in the BoyleSports Irish Grand National including Cause Of Causes but it remains to be seen whether we actually run him in it or not. There’s still a question mark over him and we have to see how next week goes. Mala Beach definitely runs. He is in really good form at home. It’s obviously not ideal coming here on the back of a fall but we think he’s in good shape and he’s one of our bigger fancies in the race.

Hopefully, I’ll have more news regarding my running plans in Thursday’s podcast.