Sunday 15th November - The Paddy Power Gold Cup

Well it didn’t go our way yesterday in the Paddy Power Gold Cup as Present View stood at the start and watched the rest of the field jump the first fence! 

Having been third in the race the previous year, when we went there on roll following on from his great Cheltenham Festival win, we went there this year on the back of a poor run at Ascot, and I’m not sure ‘Elvis’ was in the right frame of mind. He has always had a 'quirk' to him, but we've always managed to nurse him on the right path, but unfortunately the new rule of standing at the tape after an initial false start has scuppered us.   What a shame!

This leaves us in a precarious position where Present View is physically better than we have ever had him, but mentally he’s just not in a good place. We will therefore send him away from the yard, and get him out of a racing yard routine. He can go hunting through the winter, and hopefully he can come back in the spring with a fresh outlook on everything. We will then consider giving him a spin over hurdles before making any further decisions, but I have always thought he’s be awesome over the National fences. However, we’ll take it one step at a time now, and we’ll try to get him mentally on the right path……