Horse Racing Betting Tip: Back Minella Rocco to land another Irish Gold Cup for JP McManus

Betting Tip:
4pm Leopardstown – Minella Rocco at 9/2 with Ladbrokes

The remarkable Carlingford Lough has won the last two renewals of the Stan James Irish Gold Cup and John Kiely’s JP McManus owned eleven-year-old is a 5/1 chance with the sponsors to land a famous hat-trick.

One has to wonder at what stage age will catch up with him though and if the market leaders currently manage to make the line-up in one piece, he will be vulnerable to younger and more potent legs.

Heading the market at 5/2 is the massively gifted but often frustrating Don Poli, who finished a solid second to Outlander, rather unexpectedly, last time out in the Lexus Chase. Any improvement on that will see him go close here, but he is high on many people’s list for the Crabbies Grand National in April and perhaps that is the chief long term goal. Nevertheless Gordon Elliott’s charge has to be respected.

At 4/1 with Stan James we have the improving and in-form Empire Of Dirt, another Gigginstown talent trained by Gordon Elliott and this ten-year-old was a very good winner of the Troytown Handicap Chase in Navan last time out.

That was a solid weight carrying performance from the horse, but this Grade 1 assignment represents a big step up in class and his price doesn’t stand out amongst some high quality horses in the field.

The one that could steal the show is the Jonjo O’Neill trained Minella Rocco, who won the 4m Novices’ Chase at the Cheltenham Festival last year. He beat Native River into second that day and certainly stamped himself as a staying chaser of some interest.

Minella Rocco was beaten into third when giving lumps of weight away first time out at Cheltenham and fell next time out at Aintree where he looked booked for a great scrap with Many Clouds. Of all of these in the Leopardstown feature at 4pm, he stands out as a horse that could produce a good performance and establish himself as a lively contender for the Cheltenham Gold Cup next month.