Horse Racing Tips: Tom Collins previews Newbury’s feature on Saturday

The Hennessy Gold Cup has long been considered a stepping stone and early-season target for future Cheltenham Gold Cup contenders, but that belief might be beginning to dwindle.

Arkle (1964 and 1965), Burrough Hill Lad (1984), One Man (1994), Denman (2007 and 2009) and Bobs Worth (2012) feature among the roll of honour - five fantastic horses who went on to achieve bigger and better things in Grade 1 company. All bar One Man, who subsequently won the King George twice and the Champion Chase, also plundered the Gold Cup.

But recent history indicates that the Hennessy is becoming more of a handicap in nature, rather than just in name. That is proven by the last four victors - Sizing Tennessee, De Rasher Counter, Cloth Cap and Cloudy Glen - winning just one race between them since their day in the Newbury sun. And the general level of performers entered in Saturday’s showpiece race has worsened - topweight this year is Fanion D’Estruval, who has never won at Graded level.

Nevertheless, every race has to have a winner and this year’s edition looks super competitive. Cheltenham Festival winner Corach Rambler and David Pipe’s Remastered, who perhaps would have won this race last year but for crashing out in the homestraight, currently head the market and shouldn’t be overlooked. But my preference is for the up-and-coming Le Milos.

I was never really convinced that former trainer Tim Vaughan was getting to the bottom of this horse - Le Milos would look full of potential one day, then seriously disappoint the next time he was seen. But it was clear that the step up to three miles unlocked extra improvement last year, and he landed a couple of chases at Exeter and Sandown in a short campaign.

Le Milos moved to Dan Skelton’s yard over the summer and produced a career-best on his seasonal reappearance at Bangor, where he sauntered clear for an emphatic success despite taking a wide route throughout and ploughing through a fence down the backstraight.

He achieved a Racing Post Rating of 155 that day - 12lb better than he had ever achieved before the stable switch - and further improvement is likely as he will strip fitter for the run. The handicapper hit him with an 8lb rise for his success, but he can compete off just 4lb higher here, which leaves him pretty well treated.

Most of his form has come on soft or heavy ground, but Le Milos doesn’t need wet conditions to show his best. Remember, he won on good at Kelso back in 2019 and good to soft at Sandown last year.

The other horse of interest at the prices is Annsam, who appears to have been wrongly overlooked for trainer Evan Williams. This seven-year-old has won six of his 18 races and is still in the infancy of his chasing career, yet he has already shown a level of form that puts him in with a strong chance against this group.

Annsam won the Silver Cup at Ascot last year, before plundering a weaker handicap hurdle over 3m at this track in April. He always tends to need his first run of the year (form figures of 56F48 after a summer break), so put a line through his recent effort, and he could be very well handicapped off a mark of 137.

Recommended trades

Le Milos (3.05 Newbury) @ 8.6
Annsam (3.05 Newbury) @ 24