gold cup

galopin wins and i think this may be his weakest assignment yet in the gold cup. the ground is the only question but reports suggest it's a little on the softer side and if that is the case he's very hard to beat. i hope he doesn't win though because i had a good antepost double at 5/1 with state man at bad prices. 

banbridge wasn't certain to stay the king george trip and he overcame a good pace to go and win there but there is an enormous difference between 3m at kempton and 3m2f on the new course here and i very much struggle to believe this horse stays well enough to trouble galopin. the form of that king george isn't all that strong and he looks much too short to me. easy to be against, probably look to take him on with a match bet or two if i can find and get down.

inothewayurthinkin, monty's star and corbett's cross all look through stayers and they are all likely players coming up the hill but i'm surprised that corbett's cross is the least likely of these to win and i've bet him ew at bigger prices than are still available (trumpet) but i think the 14/1 is still a very fair bet. he's posted the best performance of any horse not named galopin des champs over a staying trip (3m at kempton doesn't count) and he's massively overlooked in a not very deep race. inothewayurthinkin is a nice type but his form is a much lower level than this and he's been relatively comfortably held stepping up to this grade this year. banbridge place lay, corbett's cross ew 14/1+, 6/1 without GDC.