The Coral Cup: Looking ahead

First run in 1993, the Coral Cup quickly established itself as one of the most competitive handicap hurdles on the entire calendar. That first running went to Olympian, the first horse to achieve the Imperial Cup/Cheltenham Festival handicap bonus. Other notable winners of the race include Big Strand in 1997 who came from another county to land the race, Ilnamar in 2002 who went onto Grade One glory at Aintree and Xenophon in 2003, a major gamble from Ireland.

The market this year is headed by the trio of Aux Ptits Soins, Activial and Call The Cops at 8/1 however, the latter can be dismissed already as he has the Pertemps Final as his main target. Aux Ptits Soins has very little hurdling experience having only raced over them twice in France, winning his last start at Auteuil in September. It’s hard to know how well handicapped he is based on a lack of a run in this country but he has been highly spoken of by both trainer and jockeys from the yard. 8/1 is too short to take any risk, even if he is extremely well handicapped.

Activial has some excellent handicap form which gives him strong claims. Arguably, he could have won the Ladbroke were it not for him overjumping at the second last behind Bayan before getting slightly behind in an odd renewal of the Betfair Hurdle when third again to Violet Dancer. The step up in trip here would look to help his claims but he has looked to want softer ground which doesn’t look likely.

Other leading contenders include Tea For Two and On Tour. The former has strong novice form and bolted up in the Lanzarote at Kempton. One thing that may tempt connections to run here rather than a novice contest is the fact that regular rider Lizzie Kelly can claim her seven pound allowance as opposed to riding off levels in either the Neptune or the Albert Bartlett. If he lines up here, he would go close as would On Tour who wasn’t given the finest ride last time out in the Betfair Hurdle where he was given far too much to do and made a forward move far too quickly even though he stays further. He is still well handicapped and the step back up in distance will be of benefit.

One that potentially has slipped under the radar slightly is the Philip Hobbs trained GARDE LA VICTOIRE, who holds entries in both this and the County Hurdle but the former looking an ideal target. Hobbs has a good record in the race having won it twice with What’s Up Boys in that famous finish in 2000 where he flew home to deny Native Dara and Monkerhostin in 2004.