ROAD GLORY
Meade star now 8-1 for Gold Cup after Sizing John flop
SIZING JOHN surrendered his place at the head of the Cheltenham Gold Cup betting when trailing in a sorry seventh in the Leopardstown Christmas Chase yesterday.
The reigning Gold Cup hero was sent off the 9-10 favourite for the Grade 1 three-miler but beat just one horse – Yorkhill – home, as Road To Respect spearheaded a 1-2-3 for Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary’s Gigginstown House Stud.
Sizing John, as short as 7-2 to retain his title on March 16, can now be backed at 8-1 with Paddy Power, who cut Nicky Henderson’s King George VI Chase winner Might Bite to 3-1 favourite.
Jockey Robbie Power reported that Sizing John was “never going with his normal zest”, while the seven-year-old’s trainer Jessica Harrington (above) said: “The vet at Leopardstown reported he was ‘clinically abnormal’. “It was a very uncharacteristic run but we’ll do some tests, take a few bloods and find out what the problem was. “As long as he’s sound and his heart was fine, that’s the main thing – we can cope with everything else.” Road To Respect gave his rider Sean Flanagan by far the biggest success of his career with a length-and-a-quarter margin over Balko Des Flos – Outlander returned two and a quarter lengths back in third – and is now as short as 8-1 ( from 25-1) for the Gold Cup.
“He’s a Gold Cup contender now – whether he runs in between or not, I don’t know,” said winning trainer Noel Meade.
The O’Leary-owned Apple’s Jade and Davy Russell overhauled Harrington’s Supasundae to capture the three-mile Christmas Hurdle, but the race was marred by the fatal fall of last season’s Stayers’ Hurdle victor Nichols Canyon.