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Back Abragante and New Alco against the field
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30/11/07.
With our fancy not taking his chance in the big race we must look elsewhere. Short priced horses do well in this race and we like the look of New Alco and Abragante. New Alco can be backed at 6/1 with VC Bet and Abragante is 6/1 with Stan James. Split your funds with 1/2 point to win on each.
Advised: Abragante @6/1 with Stan James, New Alco 6/1 with Stan James both prices available at time of writing..
Newbury Saturday 1st December Live on Channel 4
3m 2f Grade 3 Chase (Class 1)
20/11/07
The Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup is one of the premier steeplechases of the whole National Hunt Season and often sees the emergence of stars of the future having been won in the past by the likes of Bregawn, Burrough Hill Lad and One Man.
Previous Winners:
2006 State Of Play 6yo Evan Williams
2005 Trabolgan 7yo Nicky Henderson
2004 Celestial Gold 6yo Martin Pipe
2003 Strong Flow 6yo Paul Nicholls
2002 Gingembre 8yo Mrs Lavinia Taylor
Traditionally the Hennessy is won by a young horse (perhaps a six or seven year old) who is in its first couple of years of experience over fences. Winners tend to be relatively unexposed and tend to have less than ten races over the larger obstacles.
Big price shocks tend to be fairly rare with the 16/1 promoted victory of Gingembre in 2002 the biggest price winner of the last ten years.
The horse that ticks all the relevant boxes is Irish raider Mossbank. Winner of two out of three of his first starts over hurdles he was thought good enough to contest Grade 1 hurdles after that and his trainer, Michael Hourigan, has always held him in the highest regard.
He started his chasing career with a promising victory in a novice chase at Clonmel in Oct 2006 but things seemed to go badly wrong after that and the trainer has since reported that the horse just wasn’t right. This has resulted in a very attractive handicap mark which Hourigan exploited to the full when Mossbank won the Limerick National with contemptuous ease on his reappearance this season. He has since been even more impressive in the Grade 2 Clonmel Oil Chase and, if given the go ahead, must have a major chance at Newbury.
Doubters will point to the poor record of Irish horses in the Hennessy but Be My Royal was first past the post in 2002 only to be disqualified on a disputed technicality so there is no reason why Irish horses can’t lift the big prize.
20/11/07
Back Mossbank at 10/1 with Totesport |
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