Tony hopes Therealbandit the real McCoy
Tony McCoy is hopeful that the relative inexperience of Therealbandit will not count against him in the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup tomorrow.
The Martin Pipe-trained seven-year-old is still a novice and has only had three starts over fences, winning his first two in style before falling when still going well in the Pillar Chase at this track in January.
Connections also had the Royal & SunAlliance Chase as an alternative but, after much deliberation, opted to go for gold and McCoy feels the right decision has been made, even though he suffered heartbreak when fellow novice Gloria Victis met with a fatal fall in this race in 2000.
“He’ll probably have as good a race as experience goes running in the Gold Cup than he would in the SunAlliance,” the champion jockey told attheraces.
“He’s going to be racing with experienced horses and there won’t be as many runners. They might go a tad quicker but he’ll have more room.
“In the novice race there’ll be plenty of speed and it’s one of those races where you’ve got to avoid the carnage and hope you get a good passage.
“In the long term, I think it’s the right thing to do. We’ll just have to wait and see.
“Best Mate has won two Gold Cups and a King George and is a star horse, but every horse is beatable.”
