Sam Thomas intends to run both Stolen Silver and Our Power in Saturday's Coral Gold Cup at Newbury.
The former was last seen when landing an impressive six-length victory in the Native River Handicap Chase on soft ground at Chepstow in October at his first attempt over three miles.
The eight-year-old was stepping up in trip for the first time that day and Thomas said: “The style he won in at Chepstow was really pleasing, he jumped brilliantly, relaxed, and saw the trip out well. I think he hopefully still has more to offer over that distance which is exciting. Obviously, you don’t quite know sometimes until you run these horses over the extreme trips however, I do feel he is a much more relaxed horse this season at home, and I think that’s a sign of him telling me he wants to step up in trip.
"I have no reason to believe he won’t get 3m2f, it’s a flat track, they go a good gallop there and you need to stay very well. If he’s ever going to stay that trip, then it will be at a track like Newbury.”
Having won both the Coral Trophy Handicap Chase and London Gold Cup Handicap Chase last season, the Coral Gold Cup has been a long-term target for the proven stayer Our Power.
On the decision to start his season over hurdles, Thomas explained: “Our Power had a good spin over hurdles to give him a good blow out. We would have loved to have run over fences, but we didn’t want to risk him winning again and ruining his chances of having a nice weight in the Coral Gold Cup, hopefully he is still off a workable mark. He’s a very laid-back character and doesn’t give much away at home but he’s come out of the race nicely and it gave us a bit of time to kick on and give him some more work. Hopefully it has blown away the cobwebs.”
With the going currently good-to-soft on the chase course, the Welsh trainer has little concern with regards the going for Stolen Silver: “He is very versatile, he will handle the softer ground, he is so tough. He goes through the pain barrier in a lot of his races and had to in some of those 2 ½ mile races at Cheltenham as they go so quick. Our Power would be more impacted by the ground, better ground would be preferable. He’s flat bred with quite a choppy action so as near to good ground as possible would suit him better.”
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