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Cheltenham
Adrian Wall: ‘Inothewayurthinkin and it needs to stop! If this boy turns up, he wins!’
Adrian Wall has formed a strong view on this year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup and he feels too many people are writing off last year’s winner.
Cheltenham Gold Cup
After his fall in the Irish Gold Cup at Leopardstown, most people seem to have formed the view that Inothewayurthinkin is pretty much finished. Last year’s Gold Cup winner is far from finished, let me tell you.
When he won the Blue Riband event last year, I remember saying to myself: “I just know they’re going to save him for this one again next year and no matter what, stick with him, because he isn’t going to show anything again until next March.”
As difficult as it has been to stick to that promise I made myself, here I am. Since his run at the Dublin Racing Festival, I have been nibbling away at him on the Betfair exchange at prices ranging from 18 to 27. As I write this piece, he is currently trading at 19.5.
He comes alive in the spring
We all remember the day Inothewayurthinkin made an absolute mockery of his mark in the Kim Muir in 2024. He was sent off the very well-backed 13/8 favourite and couldn’t have done it more impressively.
Now, how could connections have been so so so confident? It must be noted that he hadn’t won any of his previous seven starts before he headed for Prestbury Park, but JP McManus and trainer Gavin Cromwell knew that day was the day. He followed up in a Grade 1 at Aintree the following month!
Onto November 2024 we go and yup, that stinking Inothewayurthinkin is back! Completely tailed off in the John Durkan. He was then well beaten in the Savills Chase and granted, he did finish fourth in the Irish Gold Cup, but was never there with a winning chance.
Roll on to the big day in March, he’s backed in from big prices and he wins the Gold Cup in an absolute canter.
So, what has changed?
In short, nothing. Inothewayurthinkin has largely performed as he has done for the past two seasons before his Cheltenham venture with another three terrible runs this season, yet we are led to believe that he is finished. I am not buying it. He got a clean bill of health after his unfortunate fall at Leopardstown and it should be all systems go to get him ready for the big one now.
Gavin Cromwell has to downplay his performances. JP McManus is a betting man and a very successful one at that. I am confident that they will have this boy in top order heading to Cheltenham next month, and if he is, I think there will only be one winner! I don’t know about you, but at his current prices, I’ll be happy to take the chance to find out win or lose.
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