Imperial Commander for Gold Cup

The Cheltenham Gold Cup isn’t just all about Kauto Star and Denman, believe it or not there are actually going to be other horses running in the race as well! Imperial Commander is one of them, and much fancied by critics and pundits a like so it’s no surprise that his preparations have been garnering some interest in horse racing circles. With just a couple of weeks to go, he has been warmed up for the Totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup away from his yard when he was taken to Kempton for a racecourse gallop.

He is last year’s Ryanair Chase winner, with good odds with Paddy Power Bookmakers, William Hill and Ladbrokes to win the gold cup and completed two miles on the Kempton turf course under jockey Paddy Brennan, in a spin alongside an unnamed younger horse ridden by trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies’s assistant Carl Llewellyn.

According to Racing Post, Brennan said:”He just really enjoyed himself. He was very keen and fresh, which we were hoping for. I couldn’t be any more happy with him. We just did two miles in a swinging canter. We didn’t really build it up much from that. It was case of getting him out of the yard. He is having a nice blow and he’s had a lovely time.”

Twiston-Davies said: “He was just having a canter, that’s all. It’s his last piece of racecourse work before Cheltenham and it will put him just right.”

Can Imperial Commander cause a real upset in the Cheltenham Gold Cup? Anything is possible on the day and despite the star power of Denman and Kauto Star they’re not invincible so maybe Paddy Brennan, who is really on form at the moment, and Nigel Twiston-Davies will be celebrating before Paul Nicholls!