AT THE RACES Nicholls’ Gold Cup hope

LAST year’s Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup runner-up Bravemansgame is approaching his peak in his bid to go one better.

While he is among the outsiders this year having failed to win in three outings, trainer Paul Nicholls believes he has valid excuses for all those reverses.

As he is a horse who tends to go well fresh, Nicholls has not run him since the King George on Boxing Day and is hoping a gallop around Kempton will put him spot-on for his big date in just over a fortnight.

“He got beat in soft ground at Wetherby first time out and we then went to the Betfair Chase, again in testing ground, en route to Kempton, so I didn’t have a lot of time to get him right for Kempton,” said Nicholls.

“To be fair to him, at Kempton he ran a really good race and in my view him and Shishkin would have been first and second.

“He still got interfered with when Shishkin had his hiccup. If that hadn’t happened he still probably would have won but then he got stopped dead, and then still picked up and galloped all the way to the line.

“Harry (Cobden) thought he ran a solid race. I still don’t think we had him at his best because of the circumstances in the autumn.

“He’s right back there now, he looks great. Harry schooled him on Tuesday and he jumped good.

“He’s going to Kempton tomorrow for a little away day when he’ll work with Captain Teague but I’m very happy with him now.

“I think 20-1 is a massive each-way price. When I look at some of the horses ahead of him in the betting, I think he’s great value.”

Another of Nicholls’ big hopes this year is Ryanair Chase contender Stage Star, winner of the Turners Novices’ Chase last year.

He began the season with a fine weight-carrying performance to win the Paddy Power Gold Cup but pulled up on New Year’s Day in very soft ground and he has not run since.

“He needs to be fresh, he needs to be right and he’s not the easiest in the world to train as he has a few little issues but when he is right, he is very good,” said Nicholls.

“He won the Paddy Power Gold Cup off top weight very nicely indeed, even though he made a horrific mistake at the last, he galloped all the way to the line.

“I wish now I hadn’t run him on New Year’s Day obviously, but it didn’t work out.

“The ground had gone testing, he had top weight, he made a couple of mistakes and I don’t think he was quite at his best.”