Kevin Blake's Big Race Verdict: Broadway hoping to star in Coral Gold Cup

• Memories of Denman come flooding back

• Irish raiders have a poor record in Coral Gold Cup

• Twiston-Davies contender can go well for in-form stable

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Denman expliots live long in the memory

The Coral Gold Cup (15:00) is the main event at Newbury on Saturday. Any time the race is mentioned, it's hard not to let ones mind wander back to renewals of old.

Every generation of racing follower is likely to have a particularly vivid memory of the race, be it one of Arkle's victories in it in 1964 and 1965, the weight-carrying feats of Bregawn and Burrough Hill Lad in the 1980s or, for a much higher proportion of readers of this column, the exploits of Denman in 2007 and 2009.

We didn't know it at the time, but Denman's second victory in the race in 2009 in particular would prove to be arguably the last time we have seen a truly epic performance from a tip-top staying chaser in a big-field handicap chase.

Carrying 11-12 off a rating 174 and facing 18 rivals, just the thought of setting such a horse a task like it isn't fathomable in the modern age of National Hunt racing. However, not only was Denman asked to do it, he completed the task in the most remarkably raw, gritty and utterly heroic style, breaking the will of his lighter-weighted rivals one after another.

The last challenger was his stable mate What A Friend. Carrying just 10-4, he would go on to win the Lexus Chase at Leopardstown and the Bowl at Aintree on his next two starts to prove that he was particularly well-handicapped off a mark of 152 on that day at Newbury, but Denman would not lie down.

I strongly suspect you have seen the race before, perhaps many times before, but do yourself a favour and watch it again.

The Coral Gold Cup takes place at Newbury tomorrow. Every year around this time, the memories of Denman's performance in the 2009 renewal come flooding back. Returning from a disappointing season, running off a rating of 174 under 11-12 and he delivers this. Awe inspiring. pic.twitter.com/jqRA4hm2db

-- Kevin Blake (@kevinblake2011) December 1, 2023

Anyway, enough nostalgia for now. Lets move onto this year's renewal of the race.

Poor record for Irish but Mullins raider is interesting

In terms of pace, Broadway Boy is the only regular front runner in the field. Henry's Friend and Remastered like to race prominently. Midnight River made the running on his seasonal return in a four-runner handicap chase at Wetherby, but more typically he has tended to race prominently and he may well return to those tactics in this much more competitive race. Colonel Harry has helped push the pace in his last two starts, albeit in much smaller fields over shorter trips.

For all the Irish dominance in National Hunt racing in recent times, that success hasn't extended to this race. Only one Irish-trained horse has won it in the last 15 years, but that hasn't deterred a few interesting contenders coming over to have a go.

Personally, I thought the most interesting of them was the Willie Mullins-trained Horantzau d'Airy despite his rise in the weights for running very well in defeat in the Kerry National and the Munster National.

Broadway looks to have had this race as his target

However, the one that makes the most appeal is the Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained Broadway Boy.

The six-year-old made an excellent start to his chasing career last season, winning three of his first four starts over fences including a Listed novices' chase and a valuable handicap chase off a mark of 146, both at Cheltenham.

At that stage it looked like he could develop into a serious contender for the National Hunt Chase or even the Brown Advisory Novices' Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, but he hit a bump in the road when scoping very badly after finishing a well-beaten third behind Grey Dawning in a Grade 2 novice chase at Warwick in January.

He was given time to get over that and returned for a Grade 1 novice chase at the Aintree Grand National meeting, but might not have been fully over it as he again disappointed in first-time cheekpieces.

Broadway Boy made his return to action in a valuable handicap chase at Cheltenham in October off a mark of 149. Having jumped well on the front end, he was bang in the race until the lack of a recent run told in the closing stages and he faded to finish third beaten 12½ lengths.

Dropped 1lb for that run, one suspects that his connections have had this race as his main aim for quite some time and everything about the test it presents should suit him well.

As well as that, he could well be left alone in front which can only help his cause. The Twiston-Davies team continue to be in fine form and the six-year-old looks to have very solid prospects of running a big race.

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