Call me crazy but I am going to say hell yes!! Currently 50/1 (which I have taken a very small chunk) but I can really see this happening. My reasons; Since the cruel loss of Vautour Willie is missing a stand out quality gold cup horse and CF can fill that gap ! Was once touted as a future gold cup horse after he came so close in the Arkle. Ran well in the King George when 10l behind Conti beating none other than Cue Card- so you can't say he doesn't stay so IMO stays the 3m. He loves the Cheltenham hill! Is at the age horse are meant to peak and altho has been off a long time today is a first stop to the Gold Cup. Will win today and be placed in the gold cup - I would write more but the race starts in 5 mins so wanted to put this up befor
He has course form which is always an advantage, but his best form is at 2m. He has to stay 3m 2f and has never looked like doing so. He's beaten Lord Windermere today, a neck- not Gold cup form this year I'm afraid, as much as I love LW.
Well today's win covered my bet for him in march and of course bit more, so if it turns out pony then hey nothing lost!!
I'm never repeating it again Maybe in a Chelts preview I'm already known as Al Ferof and Yanworths fan boy- I can't keep embarasssing myself.
In a word, no, as he's not even a King George horse as 2015 showed! All credit to the genius of old boy Mullins getting him back on winning ways after a 19 month lay off from injury. Superb to see the old boy race and ping his fences with such zest. Your question though did make me think what would he not have done to Dodging Bullets in that Queen Mother which his stablemate bit him out of winning!
If you froze time as they jumped the last in the ’14 Arkle you would say that Champagne Fever was a horse with the world at his feet and jumping racings next big mega star. However, from that point on things haven’t quite gone to plan. Collared in the dying strides, of that heat, by the Pipe’s Western Warhorse (who had done nothing before or in his sole subsequent outing – and if the ‘magic fridge’ wasn’t opened on the evening of 10 March 2014 I’ll eat my hat and anybody else’s). At the point in time I mentioned anyone who thought he wasn’t a future CGC winner would have needed sectioning, in my opinion, but it ain’t really happened for him since (to the level that was expected at any rate) and I think it a case of (i) Champagne Fever perhaps not being as good as first thought and (ii) his time seems to have gone now anyway. I note that his one sole entry is over 20 furlongs and really can’t see him getting home anyway over 26.5 furlongs at Cheltenham.
