Power is sizing up gold run

JOCKEY Robbie Power says his confidence in Sizing John remains sky-high even though last year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup winner has not run since a disappointing seventh in Leopardstown’s Christmas Chase. While the eight-year-old has been away from the track, contenders such as Irish Gold Cup winner Edwulf and Denman Chase winner Native River have enhanced their claims. But Sizing John, trained by Jessica Harrington, is still 6-1 second favourite to land back-to-back Gold Cups. Power said: ‘I sat on him last week and everything is going perfectly well. He has not missed a beat with his preparation. Everything we have wanted to do, we have been able to do. ‘We just ran back too soon after he was very impressive when winning at Punchestown (on December 10). If he had not run at Christmas, everyone would still be talking about him. You can forgive a horse one run. They are not machines. After that, Jessie made the decision to keep him fresh and go straight to Cheltenham. I would not swap him for anyone else.’ Power could have switched to Harrington’s 2017 Irish National winner Our Duke, 7-1 for the Gold Cup after his recent win at Gowran Park. But he said: ‘It would have been very hard to get off a Gold Cup winner. You’d have egg on your chin if you were on Our Duke and Sizing John won. They are two very good horses with very good chances but I was always going to ride Sizing John.’ Three wins at last year’s Festival sparked a fantastic spring for Power, who had six Grade One wins in little over a month. Two of those, at Aintree and Punchestown, came on Fox Norton, trained by Colin Tizzard, and another one on Harrington’s Supasundae in Cheltenham’s Coral Cup. At the Festival, Supasundae has the Stayers’ Hurdle on his agenda while Fox Norton looks likely to run in the Ryanair Chase. Power said: ‘Supasundae’s form is rock solid. Providing the ground is good, he’d have no problem getting the three-mile trip. And Fox Norton beat Un De Sceaux at Punchestown last year so, again with good ground, he has a massive chance in the Ryanair.’