cappa bleu has ample class to crush denmania
Saturday November 28 2009
Are we about to witness the second coming of Denmania at Newbury? Can the strapping gelding repeat his victory in the 2007 Hennessy en route to a tilt at the Cheltenham Gold Cup he also won in that vintage campaign?
It's not an easy call. Perhaps the best approach is to consider how Denman would have fared two years ago had he ran from 13lbs higher in the handicap. Yes, he won by 11 lengths and eight, but Dream Alliance and Character Building, the horses he beat, have proved very ordinary by Hennessy standards.
The key to a Denman victory thus depends on the collective merit of the second-season novices which habitually plunder this valuable staying chase. As a group they are strong in numbers but decidedly weak on achievement.
Each of What A Friend, Killyglen, Gone To Lunch and Noel Meade's Casey Jones can flaunt one piece of compelling form, yet none has flourished in the kind of competitive environment they will encounter today.
On that basis, it could pay to look among the more seasoned chasers. Again, however, the likes of My Will, Joe Lively and three more Irish raiders -- Offshore Account, Snowy Morning and War Of Attrition -- do not inspire confidence.
Barbers Shop is an option if you believe he will thrive on the gruelling stamina test awaiting him, but the way he folded in the closing stages of the Cheltenham Gold Cup wasn't encouraging.
As a former winner at his best when fresh, State Of Play comes into it. Yet he has travelled the Grand National route which, to this way of thinking, renders horses less effective on their return to park fences.
So we return to the beginning and the claims of Denman. Were it not for that crashing fall on his last start at Aintree, he would be the selection. And the horse poised to capitalise is the one potential curveball in the field. Step forward Cappa Bleu, a young upstart from the hunter-chase ranks.
Take out his flunk at Aintree last month and Cappa Bleu would almost certainly be sent off favourite here. And while that speed test over an inadequate trip found him out, he is much better judged on a runaway Cheltenham Foxhunters' victory that bore the hallmarks of a rising force in the game.
Evan Williams is delighted with Cappa Bleu's preparation after the seven-year-old schooled with zest last Monday. The Welsh trainer could well be holding the decisive trump.
Irish Independent
