Get Youth On Your Side At Cheltenham

Andy Newton looks at the Caspian Caviar Gold Cup

- Andy Newton

A few weeks before the King George at Kempton, we’ve another huge Cheltenham meeting as their two-day December Festival gets going from Fri 11th-Sat 12th.

As always, there will be plenty of Cheltenham Festival clues on offer for later in the season, but one of the clear highlights over the two days is the Caspian Caviar Gold Cup (December Gold Cup), which is always run on the Saturday.

It’s a prize the Paul Nicholls yard have done extremely well in recently, winning the race five times since 2009, but last year we saw trainer David Pipe equal his dad, Martin’s, record of two wins in the contest, when his 7-year-old Warthog did the business.

There are plenty of other key trends to note too – let’s take a look at some of the main ones.

Age Concern – This handicap, run over 2m4 1/2f, tends to go to a younger, up-and-coming chaser and this is backed up with ALL of the last 18 winners aged 8 or younger! In fact, the last horse to win this race aged in double-figures was in 1974. In recent years, we’ve even seen two 4 year-olds land the prize (2012 and 2016), but with 12 of the last 18 (67%) winners aged 6 or 7 years old, this age group have slightly edged it of late.

Recent Form – Having an outing in the last five weeks is another key trend to note – 16 of the last 18 (88%) winners ticked this particular stat. Also having a good recent run seems to be key with 14 of the last 18 winners (78%) having finished in the top three in their last race, but it’s interesting that only 4 of those 18 took this race having won last time out.