San Benedeto

San Benedeto put up a really game performance to land the Greatwood Gold Cup. He was keener than ideal early on and he was out to his right at several of his fences, and he was wide for much of the journey, but he travelled well through his race for Nick Scholfield. He travelled well into the home straight and, moved towards the far side, he picked up well at the second last fence when his rider asked him to, and he stayed on strongly all the way up the run-in to get the better of Gala Ball.

Paul Nicholls’ horse has had plenty of racing, but he loved this good ground and this 2m 4f trip is ideal for him. He will be interesting again now on good ground, and he could do even better on a right-handed track. His best runs before this were at Ascot and Exeter and Sandown, all right-handed tracks.

Newbury, 2^nd March 2019