L'Homme Presse may have lost Ascot battle but that doesn't make him a forlorn hope for Gold Cup glory

L'Homme Presse was pushed out to as big as 16-1 for the Gold Cup with BoyleSports after his second in the Ascot Chase on Saturday, which seems a bit of an overreaction to me.

I'm not sure L'Homme Presse did too much wrong in the circumstances. Going right-handed doesn't suit him as well as going left-handed at Cheltenham, and the shorter trip was also against him. He kept going well in a losing cause and, in beating Ahoy Senor by four lengths into third, he was pretty much replicating his Brown Advisory form of 2022.

Pic D'Orhy is a good horse at this track – he had two Grade 2 wins to his name at Ascot and now has a Grade 1 – and, unlike L'Homme Presse, he was racing over his ideal distance.