Racing:Paul Nicholls believes Denman is in the same kind of shape ahead of the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury as he was when he took the historic prize two years ago.
The nine-year-old announced himself as a player at the highest level by lumping top weight to victory in a season that saw him go on to dethrone stablemate Kauto Star in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
However, since that day at Prestbury Park the wheels have rather off for ‘The Tank’ as he was diagnosed with a heart problem which kept him off the track until February, where he was beaten out of sight by Madison du Berlais.
He then defied the odds by putting up a valiant attempt in defence of his Gold Cup crown by beating old by Kauto Star but looked booked for second again when falling badly at Aintree in April.
“He looks the same as he was two years ago,” said Nicholls, whose charge must race from a 13lb-higher mark.
“Clifford (Baker, head lad) thinks he’s the same as he was two years ago.
“He’s a hard horse to assess as he just does enough at home, but there have been no problems with him this time.
“He looks great, is good in his skin and has done everything right. We are happy with him — but it’s the same with them all, until you actually run them you don’t know.”
Nicholls said this week he had backed What A Friend ante-post and the youngster, owned in partnership by Alex Ferguson, is now second-favourite with some bookmakers.
“What A Friend is a bit quirky and quite often the good horses have that, but I’m quite looking forward to running him in a 20-runner race as in some of those novice chases with three or four runners it didn’t always suit him,” Nicholls went on.
“He’s well, but whether he’s good enough is a different matter.
“He doesn’t take a lot of running, you have to space his races out so he’s nice and fresh. I didn’t want to run him beforehand, I was always going to come here first.
“My Will could run well too, he ran a grand race the other day at Down Royal but his handicap mark makes him hard to win with. He’ll run a sound race whatever.”
Evan Williams burst on to the scene in 2006 by winning this race with State Of Play and he is back again, along with Cappa Bleu, winner of the Foxhunter Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.
While Cappa Bleu is a shorter price with the bookmakers, stable jockey Paul Moloney has stayed loyal to State Of Play with Wayne Hutchinson a late replacement for Jamie Moore on Cappa Bleu.
“I’m not concerned about the ground for State Of Play, if you look at his form he’s won plenty of races with give under his feet, it’s his well-being that is the key,” said Williams. “The old horse has done a lot for Paul and a lot for us so he decided to stick with him.
“I’ve been very happy with Cappa Bleu’s preperation. He needed that run at Aintree to get streetwise because he’s so green.
“He was hanging in the air over his fences but he’ll get down and jump them a lot sharper now. I think the horse will have got a massive amount of benefit from that.
“I hope this is the last time Cappa has such a low weight in a race like this, I’ll be very disappointed if that’s not the case but we are talking about horses.
“I make no bones about it. My heart will always be with State Of Play but being brutally sensible I’d always go with an up-and-coming horse like Cappa Bleu and he could be anything.
“The old horse will make them all go though if he is still there at the last.”