Bad news would be good for Pauling at Cheltenham

Bad will be out to prove he is more than just a Kempton specialist when he runs in the Paddy Power Gold Cup at Cheltenham on Saturday.

Ben Pauling’s grey has won three races since moving from France, all at the Sunbury venue, although he has gone close at the likes of Ascot and Newbury.

His one run at Cheltenham saw him finish mid-division in the 2023 Fred Winter, but Pauling feels he ran better than his finishing position there suggests.

“We’ll find out if he’s just a Kempton specialist or not. I think he’s a different horse to the one I trained a couple of years ago,” said Pauling.

“He ran very well in the Boodles (Fred Winter). I know he was nearly favourite and ended up being beaten 10 lengths, but he hit the front plenty soon enough that day.

“I had been hoping he wouldn’t hit the front until coming to the last, as he was a new French horse on an undulating track.

“Rachael (Blackmore) wouldn’t have given many a bad ride, but she’d just got off a certain horse called Honeysuckle who had just won her last race, so she was on cloud 89!

“She came in and said ‘I’m sorry, he was going so well I went to the front down the hill, but he got tired coming up it’, so I don’t think the track doesn’t suit him – but he does look very good around Kempton and they are very different tracks.

“We will find out, but he’s going there in very good order and he should be competitive.”