L’Homme can Presse home his advantage in Gold Cup – City AM

Tuesday 14 January 2025 5:34 pm

REGULAR readers will know that I tipped a Venetia Williams horse in my first Highway to Cheltenham ante-post column final week. Nicely, I’m moving into once more I’m afraid!

Make no mistake, Williams is an excellent coach, significantly of chasers, and I simply assume L’HOMME PRESSE is just too large at 25/1 for the Boodles Gold Cup.

Sure, he’s now a 10-year-old, however he’s nonetheless calmly raced for his age, and whereas the final consensus was that he didn’t keep in final yr’s blue riband when ending fourth, I feel there have been real excuses.

He was struck into in direction of the top of the race, leading to an damage, and I’m ready to just accept that was the explanation for him tiring up the hill relatively than the stamina gauge emptying.

Return to his win within the 2022 Brown Advisory and he definitely wasn’t stopping on the line.

If Williams was actually frightened about his means to see out the journey, then certainly she would have entered him within the Ryanair Chase, however she hasn’t – that is his solely choice.

He ran a greater than respectable third behind Banbridge and Il Est Francais on his reappearance within the King George, on floor that may have been too energetic for him, so a softer floor at Cheltenham could be ultimate.

Now, I’m not saying he’s going to beat Galopin Des Champs, who has seemed pretty much as good as ever this season, however the favorite is odds-on with loads of bookmakers, whereas my choice may be backed at 25/1 each-way.

He could possibly be out in subsequent week’s Cotswold Chase and if he have been to win that, he will likely be a lot shorter, whereas there are query marks about many of the different runners within the area.

POINTERS                                         ANTE-POST

L’Homme Presse    25/1 e/w        Cheltenham Gold Cup