Coral Gold Cup tips: Podcast panel highlight their Newbury fancies

Ed Chamberlin - Mission to get McConnell off cold list?

The Coral Gold Cup at Newbury looks a cracking betting heat, a wide-open race with so many horses fancied. When you watch back the race from Cheltenham in March and Mahler Mission (fell in National Hunt Chase), I think he would have won that day.

It's just that trainer John McConnell hasn't had a winner over in Britain - flat or jumps - for a very long time which has to be a concern. I'm also a little bit concerned about conditions at Newbury and whether Saturday will actually be on, especially if they race on Friday. It's going to be a bit of a challenge for everyone involved.

Billy Nash - Red-hot Cromwell has intriguing runner

Just to flesh that out a little more, McConnell had a double at Ludlow in October and he hasn't had a winner since, the last winner he had in Ireland was on September 27 and of course he is predominantly known as a Flat trainer and his last winner on the Flat was August 29. So the stable form would be a massive concern for anyone who is fancying Mahler Mission, who looks to have a very live chance if back to his best.

Gavin Cromwell couldn't be in better form, in contrast, and he's really good at targeting these races and this has been the plan for Stumptown for a while. He was a little bit disappointing in the Kerry National last time but it can be hard to make up ground around there at Listowel and you'd be inclined to give him a pass for that.

He was second in the Kim Muir off 135 last season and he now runs of 143 so the handicapper hasn't missed him but he's still relatively lightly raced and he does seem to run well in Britain as some of his best performances have come over there.

I think he's got plenty going for him but it's a wide-open race with some very classy horses up at the top of the handicap, the likes of Complete Unknown was second to Gerri Colombe last year so he'll give us a bit of a line to that form as well.

David Johnson - More Genius work from Jonjo?

Ahoy Senor brings a lot to the intrigue of the race, for all that he's got those jumping problems and is probably best getting his own way in front so it doesn't strike me as being the ideal kind of race to see him to best effect so I'd be surprised if he could get the job done with that weight in a race like this.

The one that really interests me - and I'd want to see him jocked up and definitely running before betting - is Jonjo O'Neill's Monbeg Genius.

When you go back to that Ultima form, I just can't believe that he's not handicapped to win a race like this. Obviously, Corach Rambler won it from Fastorslow, with just two lengths back to Monbeg Genius who was eight and a half lengths clear of the rest.

The handicapper didn't miss it and did put him up 7lb, and you've obviously got that disappointing effort at Ascot to forgive but he just made one bad mistake that completely put him out of the race. He does hold an entry in the Becher Chase the following weekend too so I just want to make sure he turns up here as the Coral Welsh National is perhaps an option as well.

We'll just have to see but he's got to win a big staying handicap chase this season, in my opinion.

Graham Cunningham - Track and trip ideal for Senor

I'm with David on Monbeg Genius, just from a pure handicapping point of view as he has to be of clear interest. The Ascot race is a complete forgive based on what happened five out.

But I do disagree with DJ on the 'cement footed' Ahoy Senor. I was dead against him in the Charlie Hall but he's only been to Newbury once and it was a small field but he was absolutely mustard that day, in the John Francome Novices' Chase two years ago, and I just think that the pan-flat Newbury track suits him extremely well.

It's asking a lot from a mark of 169, a front-runner giving bundles of weight but I do think the cement-footed Ahoy Senor could run a proper race this weekend.

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