Coneygree camp expecting big run in Cue Card clash at Wetherby

Coneygree is expected to come on for the run in Saturday's bet365 Charlie Hall Chase but his rivals have been warned he is as good as ever and goes to Wetherby with a very good shout.

The 2015 Gold Cup winner has had just three races since his memorable Cheltenham triumph but showed he retains plenty of ability when finishing a close third behind 2017 winner Sizing John at Punchestown in April.

And the fact the Mark Bradstock-trained chaser has not won a race for nearly two years means he escapes a penalty and will receive 6lb from old rival Cue Card, who beat him into second place when the pair met at level weights in the Betfair Chase at Haydock last November.

"You'd have to hope we're in a strong position with no penalty," the trainer's wife Sara said on Monday. "He'll come on for the race, he wouldn't be at peak fitness, but he's in good nick.

"We'd be giving all of those bar Cue Card weight in a handicap but we're getting weight off a lot of them on Saturday. You'd have to hope that he goes there with a very good shout.

"He ran a hell of a race in Ireland and he came on for that, he needed that to give him confidence after the injury to a front leg and since then he's really come together."

Coneygree galloped his rivals into the ground with a battling effort from the front when becoming the first novice to land the Gold Cup since 1974 and he is reckoned still to have that sort of performance in him.

"I genuinely think he's as good as ever," Bradstock said. "He's ten but he has no miles on the clock and he hasn't really got any speed to lose as he never had any. There isn't a top gear to lose."

Ground worries scotched plans to run Coneygree at Auteuil and then Listowel after his Punchestown effort but he will head to Wetherby provided conditions get no quicker than good to soft.

Cue Card has fallen in the last two Gold Cups, so his camp could target the Ryanair Chase, a race he won in 2013, this spring.

"I think he's better this autumn than he was 12 months ago," said Tizzard. "We took him to Wincanton for a gallop and he finished eight lengths ahead of a 155-rated horse.

"After Christmas it'll be Ascot [for the Ascot Chase] and then on to Cheltenham where we'd have a good think about the Gold Cup because he's fallen in it the last twice, and maybe the Ryanair is an option."

The Wetherby going was officially soft, good to soft in places, on Monday night with no rain forecast after Tuesday morning. But clerk of the course Jonjo Sanderson stressed: "It won't dry out enormously because it's had a lot of rain since we last raced and it's not the time of year when things dry out particularly.

"I would be amazed if the description had the straight 'good' in it in any shape or form. At our quickest it may be good to soft or it may be in the region of good to soft/soft or soft/good to soft depending on what we get tomorrow morning."

Among an entry of 13 the sponsors make Cue Card 9-4 favourite, ahead of Coneygree on 5-2, and offer 8-1 about Definitly Red, who won the Rowland Meyrick Handicap Chase at Wetherby last December.

"Definitly Red is in good form and we are very happy with him," said trainer Brian Ellison. "But looking at the race, he will need to be in good form as it looks like a mini Gold Cup!

"Touch wood, he normally runs well fresh and has won first time out three out of the last four seasons I think. He has been away and galloped, and looks a million dollars at the moment.

"He is doing everything right and it looks like the ground is going to be ideal."

Get the full lowdown on Cue Card and the rest of Colin Tizzard's stars in Monday's Racing Post or sign up to members' club to read the Stable Tour here