John McConnell is excited about the chances of Mahler Mission in next month’s Coral Gold Cup at Newbury following his promising comeback run at Carlisle on Sunday.
The seven-year-old looked the likely winner of the National Hunt Chase at last season’s Cheltenham Festival before crashing out two fences from home and he made his first competitive appearance since in the Colin Parker Memorial Intermediate Chase in Cumbria over the weekend.
Running over an inadequate trip of two and a half miles, Mahler Mission set out to make all the running before eventually being reeled in by the classy Thunder Rock, but was 10 lengths clear of the remainder in second and McConnell could not have been happier with the performance in defeat.
He said: “We were really happy, we obviously wanted to get a clear round in after what happened in Cheltenham and he ran a really nice race over a trip that was obviously a little bit on the short side.
“He was beaten by a proper horse of Olly’s (Murphy) and overall we couldn’t be happier with him.
“He kept going to the line and will come on for the run in terms of fitness as well. He jumped really well and we think he’s probably slightly better left-handed as well, so there’s lots of positives.”
With the cobwebs blown away, McConnell is looking forward to stepping him back up in trip for one of the season’s most prestigious handicaps at Newbury on December 2.
He added: “That (Coral Gold Cup) is the plan – left-handed, nice trip for him and at the minute he’s got a nice weight (10st 10lb).
“I would imagine the weights could go up a little bit, but anything under 11st would be a lovely racing weight and it looks an obvious target for him.
“I don’t want to think about it too much as I’d get too excited, but if I was looking from the outside in I would think he’d have a right chance.”
Mahler Mission is one of 41 horses still in contention for the Coral Gold Cup following the latest acceptance stage.
The weights are headed by Lucinda Russell’s Ahoy Senor, who could look to bounce back from a disappointing reappearance in Saturday’s Charlie Hall Chase, but would have to carry 12 stone.
The Scottish handler has also left in her Grand National hero Corach Rambler (11st 4lb), who similarly failed to fire on his return to action at Kelso last month.
Dan Skelton’s Protektorat (11st 11lb) and the Venetia Williams-trained Royale Pagaille (11st 5lb) are both still in the mix, while the race sponsors make Jonjo O’Neill’s Monbeg Genius (10st 6lb) their 7/1 favourite despite the fact he was pulled up at Ascot over the weekend.
Coral’s David Stevens said: “Following his defeat at Ascot on Saturday, we eased Monbeg Genius to 10/1 from 6/1 for the Coral Gold Cup, but punters seem willing to overlook that run, and the Cheltenham Festival third has reclaimed his place at the head of the Newbury betting.”
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