Cheltenham Racecourse staged a media event at Kempton Park on Monday morning ahead of £160,000 BetVictor Gold Cup, the centrepiece of The November Meeting at Cheltenham this Saturday, 16 November.
Among those on hand to offer their thoughts were Joe Tizzard, whose father Colin is responsible for BetVictor’s 5/1 favourite Slate House (11st), and Harry Derham, representing champion trainer Paul Nicholls. Nicky Henderson and fellow Lambourn trainer Harry Whittington were also in attendance.
Slate House – early fancy
Second season novice chaser Slate House has topped the betting for the BetVictor Gold Cup since bolting up by 11 lengths in a novices’ chase over the course and distance at Cheltenham’s opening fixture, The Showcase, on 26 October.
The seven-year-old, who captured the Gr2 Sky Bet Supreme Trial Novices’ Hurdle at The November Meeting in 2017, ran four times over fences last season without success.
Tizzard said: “We had the BetVictor Gold Cup in mind for Slate House throughout the summer.
“Slate House started his novice hurdle campaign very well two years ago, beating Summerville Boy at Cheltenham, and then that season petered out. He became a bit keen and wasn’t finishing his races, and then he chipped a bone in his knee at Aintree, which stopped him having any summer in the field as he was on box rest for three months, hence last year was just about getting him going again. He never looked particularly well and sometimes those injuries can set horses back that far.
“We felt he had a nice mark coming into this season, which we kind of lost at Cheltenham last time as he has gone up 12lb! The performance at Cheltenham was very good. We thought he would run well, but we did not think he would win like he did. It can be hard to assess because it was bordering on heavy ground and it is early in the season, which can catch a few horses out. I just think he handled conditions better than the rest.
“We are going to have a go with him on Saturday, but we have the advantage of being able to drop back to the novice route afterwards. I appreciate how competitive the BetVictor Gold Cup is from my riding days, and this is one of the biggest races of the season this side of Christmas.
“We will probably have half a dozen runners at The November Meeting. The ground has been a lot softer compared to this time last year, which means we have been able to run horses a lot earlier this season.
“L’Air Du Vent will run on Friday in the Gr2 Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle. He ran really well at the last meeting when just getting tired after the last, but he certainly travelled like a really nice horse.”
