Paddy Power Gold Cup preview: Long-term Cheltenham plan for Ga Law

After missing last season with a tendon injury, the lightly-raced six-year-old will bid to go two places better than Snowden’s former stable star Present View, who finished third in the 2014 renewal of the Premier Handicap, and gain a fourth victory over fences.

While frustrated at having to make do without the Sinndar gelding last term the Lambourn handler now hopes he can make up for lost time in the two and half mile prize, which he is 7/1 co-favourite for with sponsor Paddy Power.

Ga Law shaped with plenty of encouragement ahead of his first trip to Cheltenham after finishing third on his first start in 603 days in the Grade Two Jewson St Helens Old Roan Limited Handicap Chase at Aintree earlier this month.

He said: “This is a horse we have liked a lot for a long time. We know the family well as we trained the brother Val Du Law who was placed in a Grade One at Aintree and we got Ga Law on the back of him.

“He won three novice chasers pretty impressively two seasons ago, one of which was the Rising Stars at Wincanton. He was third in the Henry VIII and second in the Pendil with a penalty on his back then unfortunately he picked up a tendon injury.

“The plan had always been to get a prep run into him before this year’s Paddy Power Gold Cup as it would have been hard to go to that race on his first start outside of novice company on the back of an absence.

“The market thinks it is the right race from him and at this moment in time he is in great order and has come out of Aintree well. Fingers crossed that continues to go well over the next couple of weeks.

“Second season novices tend to do well in this race. We were second with Present View, who had previously won at The Festival. He had a prep run over hurdles then got beat two lengths in the Paddy Power and he had a similar profile to Ga Law. Fingers crossed he can fit into that mould."

Reflecting on his comeback performance (replay below), Snowden believes it was excellent effort given the amount of time he had off the track and his reaction to making a mistake at the fifth last, all of which he hopes bodes well for the future.

He said: “We ended up going, as a bit of a Plan B, as it were to the Old Roan with him. He made a mistake at the fifth last which put him on the back foot and he was three or four lengths detached from the field coming around the bend.

“He made up most of that and was only beaten a length and a quarter in the end. It was a cracking run on the back of that absence. The Paddy Power is only a few weeks after the Old Roan but he looks great and it is great we can go there with a chance while it would be amazing if he went and won."

Snowden could be double handed in the race with Kiltealy Briggs, who he describes as a ‘legend’ of a horse, also under consideration for the £160,000 contest. Having pulled up on his final two starts last season the gelded son of Fame And Glory made a triumphant return in the Symphony Group Prelude Handicap Chase at Market Rasen earlier this month.

Snowden said: “It was brilliant to see him win at Market Rasen the other day. He is an absolute legend of a horse who a couple of years back suffered from bad colic and he had two colic surgeries one summer.

“The Market Rasen race we were using as a prep run for the Grand Sefton at Aintree on Saturday and we thought we had him fit enough to run well, but not necessarily to win but he dug deep and he won.

“Fitness wise he will improve off the back of that but having a hard race I just wonder whether the Grand Sefton will come too soon so we have stuck him in the Paddy Power as well. He could be developing into a really lovely middle distance horse.”

Although Kiltealy Briggs has failed to shine in his four previous visits to Cheltenham, Snowden believes much of that might have been down to running him over the wrong trip on three of those occasions opposed to his ability not to act on the track.

He added: “We’ve constantly been trying to make him into a three-mile horse over hurdles and over fences as he is out of a sister to Ballabriggs so we have had it in our mind that stamina is his forte.

“He has been to Cheltenham a few times and he hasn’t necessarily performed there but that is probably because we have run him over the wrong trip. I think we can put a line through his effort in the Ultima and his stamina just ebbed away. Maybe it is not Cheltenham, maybe it is that he has just not stayed

“He goes a good gallop over two and a half he jumps brilliantly and he can put horses under pressure doing that. I think we are going to stick to what we know best which is two and a half miles. If we box clever we can win some nice races with him.”

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