Blue Artisan favourite to land Gold Cup at Monmore
Blue Artisan has been installed as the odds-on favourite to land the Ladbrokes Gold Cup which gets underway this afternoon at Monmore over 480m.
The Harry Williams-trained charge recently claimed the Gymcrack title at Hall Green, where he remained undefeated through the course of the competition.
Artisan finds himself in the same scenario at Monmore after landing the first round and semi-final heats with great use of pace, and if he can continue to dominate, may very well bag connections the £10,000 prize.
One concern which may affect his performance is the draw, which sees him making a trap two start, in-between second-favourite Bucks Yahoo [trap one] and the extremely fast Ballymac Ace [trap three].
This leaves Boolavogue to be the value in the Gold Cup. Trained by Chris Cronin, you would expect him to normally struggle to live with the likes of Artisan, Ace and Yahoo, but with the trio all drawn alongside, it provides for a good chance.
Boolavogue pulled off a smashing performance last week in the semi-finals, clocking 28.39sec to beat Loughbeag Roopy [who starts in trap six today], and has yet again been gifted with the trap four box.
You can be sure that he will return yet another solid performance and will be travelling best of all in the closing quarter.
Ladbrokes Gold Cup £10,000 Final: T1 Bucks Yahoo (5-2), T2 Blue Artisan (Evs), T3 Ballymac Ace (6-1), T4 Boolavogue (10-1), T5 Hollywood Idol (20-1), T6 Loughbeag Roopy (14-1)
Bettor.com prediction: 4 + 1 + 2
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