Direct comparisions are often made between this Saturday’s Caspian Caviar Gold Cup (formerly sponsored by Boylesports) and the BetVictor (former Paddy Power) Gold Cup. Both are Grade 3 handicap chases run over 2m5f but one is contested on the New Course at Cheltenham and the other the Old – that makes a difference, as any jockey or trainer will tell you!
The BetVictor winner Taquin De Seuil has declined the opportunity to complete the double with quicker going given as the reason for his omission, though I suspect that the fact that he would have been carrying top weight was also a consideration.
Caspian Caviar Gold Cup History and Trends
First run in 1963, the race was known as the Massey Ferguson Gold Cup until 1980 and has had several sponsors and title changes sponsors since. Boylesports supported the race from 2006 to 2009 as the Boylesports.com Gold Cup and the 2010 renewal was run as the Vote A P Gold Cup as part of a successful campaign to encourage racegoers to vote for Tony McCoy in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.
In 2011 the racehorse owner Andy Stewart backed the race to promote his Spinal Research charity until it was taken over by its current sponsors.
Paul Nicholls has trained the winner in three of the last seven years. Philip Hobbs trained last year’s winner Village Vic (who carries top weight of 11st 12lb this year, and also Monkerhostin in 2004 and this is very much a race for the powerful NH yards in general.
There are no significant trends concerning weight carried but age does make a difference. Only three of the previous 10 winners were aged eight or over with horses between six and eight winning nine of the last 10 renewals. Horses aged nine or older have no wins and just two places from 45 runners stretching back 13 years which doesn’t bode well for Village Vic or Buywise (a general 7/1 and 10/1 respectively) or Module (16/1 in several places).
Official ratings have also been significant lately with the last five winners all being rated between 133 and 145.
THOMAS BROWN slips nicely into that niche and looks a decent bet at 11/1 with Coral.
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Harry Fry’s Thomas Brown won an Aintree handicap on his reappearance and has a good strike rate over the larger obstacles. I get the impression there will be more to come if he can iron out the odd jumping error, though he won’t have much room for error in a race like this.
Village Vic, Buywise and Aso filled the places behind Taquin De Seuil in the BetVictor with Bouvreuil hot on their heels and Frodon 10th. Bookmakers expect Bouvreuil to come out best this time and he is the general 6/1 favourite but I expect Aso to run well again at the general 9/1 and there has been significant ante-post support for Ascot third Aloomomo, though the general 9/1 looks much too short now. However, the 10/1 with Betway for the tough Kylemore Lough could repay each-way support.
Caspian Caviar Gold Cup Current Best Odds
Bouvreuil (6/1), Village Vic (7/1), Aloomomo and Aso (9/1), Buywise and Kylemore Lough (10/1), Thomas Brown (11/1), Frodon and King’s Odyssey (12/1), Module (16/1), Sizing Codelco, Full Shift and Quite By Chance (20/1), Roman Flight (25/1), Solar Impulse (33/1), Turban (66/1)
