Solid Pro tempting at 20s

It’s been a difficult winter, but Saturday warmed the cockles at Cheltenham.

We saw some splendid performances from Comfort Zone and Stage Star, while Gold Tweet’s victory in the Cleeve Hurdle was a real highlight. That puts him right in contention for the Stayers’ in March, a race that’s now bubbling up nicely.

So too is the Gold Cup in which Galopin Des Champs remains the hot favourite.

His big trial could come in the Irish Gold Cup at the Dublin Racing Festival on

Saturday, which will be his first attempt over fences at three miles. If he wins and wins well then he’ll be the hottest favourite for the festival feature since the days of Kauto Star.

But what if he falters at Leopardstown? What if the longer trip does prove a problem? All of a sudden the race becomes wide open, and the horse who I think should currently be second in the betting has just been pushed out to 20-1 despite running a perfectly respectable trial on Saturday.

I’m talking about PROTEKTORAT, and after such a silly reaction from the layers I think we better avail ourselves of some of their generosity.

I’ve mentioned the winners on Trials day, but two horses who I thought did their festival prospects no harm in defeat were Edwardstone and Protektorat.

Edwardstone was narrowly denied in the Clarence House Chase by Editeur Du Gite, but it was a good effort as he wasn’t near his best and came from miles off the pace. He did well to briefly hit the front, and he’s my horse for the Champion Chase.

The bookmakers seem to agree and some now have him favourite.

Protektorat didn’t get as close to winning as Edwardstone, beaten just over five lengths into fourth in the Cotswold Chase.

He was around the 9-1 mark for the Gold Cup before Saturday, yet by the way firms have reacted you’d think they had mistaken him in the Cotswold for Dusart, who ran a stinker and was pulled up.

The selection was very impressive when he won the Betfair Chase at Haydock in November and there was disappointment that he didn’t repeat that performance at the weekend. But he was never going to and was never meant to either.

Saturday was just a stepping stone to March for the eight-year-old, Dan Skelton made that quite clear. He was not A1 and ran as if short of a gallop.

Still, nothing travelled or jumped better in the race, while he was actually finishing best of anything.

The previous season’s Gold Cup has become the best guide to the big one in recent years.

Protektorat finished third in 2022 having not run since the start of December. Despite racing too keen, giving vain pursuit to the Henry de Bromhead pair and missing the last completely, he still held on for third and was unquestionably the horse to take out of the race after the winner, A Plus Tard.

This season his jumping has improved.

So just for a moment let’s forget about Galopin Des Champs or even a back-toform A Plus Tard – if the heavens open on Gold Cup day and it’s genuine soft ground, Protektorat will have a huge chance.

He’s Britain’s best hope in my book and the Cotswold run should have left him in perfect shape. He won’t be too fresh like last year and is more the finished article.

The layers now seem to prefer Noble Yeats, Stattler, Bravemansgame, Conflated and Ahoy Senor as the main challengers to the market leader and last year’s winner.

I think that is incorrect; this is a young, improving horse who likes Cheltenham and has previous form in the race.

20-1 about Protektorat for the Gold Cup? Yes please.