Il Ridoto shows the danger of writing off a horse as a bridesmaid and saves Cheltenham bookies from a total battering

It's always dangerous to develop fixed ideas about a racehorse, an insight that came back to me while winching my jaw off the floor after Il Ridoto's handsome success in Saturday's Paddy Power Gold Cup. After the early high of his victory in the Jim Joel almost three years ago he had proved hard to win with, and the impression formed was that, in big-ticket handicaps, he would generally run well but not well enough for win-only purposes.

A smarter way to view him would have been as a young horse who had nonetheless acquired plenty of Cheltenham experience and was down half a stone from his peak rating, representing a yard suddenly in tremendous form, whose horses were showing significant benefit for their first run. Il Ridoto put up one of his weakest efforts at Chepstow last month, but he needed it and those who took a positive view were rewarded at 10-1, with Freddie Gingell's 3lb claim helping to make it look easy in the end.

Paul Nicholls has been winning at a 30 per cent strike-rate over the past fortnight, which perhaps encouraged backers of Ginny's Destiny, the Paddy Power favourite. But the trainer repeatedly pointed to the fact that the eight-year-old had needed his first run last season and warned that he might do so again, which proved prescient.