Cheltenham: Can Last Instalment upset the Gold Cup odds?
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Last Instalment looks the value bet going into the last day of the Festival, with Philip Fenton’s charge in fine fettle going into the Gold Cup.
The nine-year-old has won nine of his 13 outings thus far and five of his last six, giving jockey Brian O’Connell plenty of confidence ahead of the festival’s headline event.
Fenton’s nag put in an impressive performance in getting the best of Tidal Bay in last month’s Hennessy Gold Cup and also had the beating of Lyreen Legend, Lord Windermere and First Lieutenant and with all three in the field on Friday 6/1 looks a tempting price.
However, with the Gold Cup representing the gelding’s first outing at Cheltenham, favouritism will be for ante-post jollies Bobs Worth and Silviniaco Conti.
Returning champion Bobs Worth absolutely loves racing at Cheltenham, winning all five of his Cotswolds outings thus far, and with Nicky Henderson’s nine-year-old in good form the 6/4 about a repeat of last year’s result is fully justified.
Henderson has won two of the last three Gold Cups, with Long Run’s 2011 success adding to his total and with last year’s winner taking four of his last five races pilot Barry Geraghty will be confident of another visit to the winner’s circle.
The Irishman caused the biggest stir of the Festival so far by steering More Of That to victory over the heavily-backed Annie Power in the Ladbrokes World Hurdle and looks likely to add to that win here.
Competition though comes in the shape of Paul Nicholls’ Silviniaco Conti, who has won 11 of his 19 races to date.
The eight-year-old was going well before falling three out in last year’s event and two third-places did not build up huge amounts of confidence thereafter.
However, after beating Cue Card and taking the spoils at Kempton last time out Noel Fehily has a good chance at delivering a fifth Gold Cup title for Henderson.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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