Cheltenham Festival: A Plus Tard and Rachael Blackmore win Gold Cup – live! | Sport

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Good from Cheltenham, where the sun is starting to break through after a misty start to the day and the course looks magnificent morning ahead of one of the great days in this, or any other, sport. It is like racing’s final round at Augusta National, the culmination of a week that has been circled on many fans’ calendars since they fell through their front door after the last one, and the Gold Cup (3.30pm) itself looks sure to be the perfect centerpiece for the final-day card.

Jon Pullin, the clerk of the course reported this morning that the going has improved to good-to-soft, soft in places, which is just about perfect jump racing ground but could mean that Galvin’s bottomless stamina is not quite as significant as it might have been. “We had a dry day yesterday so the ground’s dried up a bit,” Pullin said. “We’ve got a dry day ahead with bright sunshine and temperatures around 14 or 15C.”

Galvin was the narrow favorite for the Gold Cup yesterday evening but as expected, the money has started to arrive for Rachael Blackmore’s mount, A Plus Tard, and he now heads the market at 11-4 with Galvin, a proven stayer who won the three -and-three-quarter mile National Hunt Chase here last season, out to 4-1 and Minella Indo – last year’s Gold Cup winner and the horse that Blackmore rejected – on offer at around 6-1.

That’s the pick of the prices for me, given Minella Indo’s exceptional record at this track, with two Festival wins already, and I’m willing to overlook his patchy record since last year’s victory as his win 12 months ago remains the best piece of form on offer and he seems to come alive in the spring. Protektorat is the shortest-priced runner from a British yard and a win for Dan Skelton’s runner would round off a much better week than anticipated for the home team.

The card is under way at 1.30pm with the Triumph Hurdle, while Paul Townend goes into the final afternoon with a one-win lead in the race to be leading rider. He has three winners this week, while Blackmore, Nico de Boinville and Patrick Mullins all have two.

Willie Mullins, meanwhile, looks home and hosed in the trainers’ race with five wins, three more than Gordon Elliott, Nicky Henderson, Henry de Bromhead and Venetia Williams, but Elliott in particular has several well-fancied runners today and could yet make a race of it should either Pied Piper or Fil Dor land the opener.

The last of the mist has just left the top of Cleeve Hill, and a wonderful afternoon of racing awaits. Good luck to all!

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