The trends suggest there can only be one winner in Friday’s Haldon Gold Cup

The Haldon Gold Cup is a historic race with an illustrious roll of honour that includes three-time Gold Cup winner Best Mate. It takes place at Exeter on Friday and a field of six has been declared. You can learn plenty by looking into the key trends of big races so we’ve assessed some recent trends and they point to one horse in Friday’s highlight. Check out our free tips page for daily content across British and Irish racing.

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Trainers to watch

Joe Tizzard has won the last two renewals of this race and would have had a large hand in it when Eldorado Allen won it for his father back in 2021. He runs JPR One, who won the race last year, and he should be in the mix once again.

Paul Nicholls has won it four times in the last decade and holds the record with eight Haldon Gold Cup successes in total. His runner Kalif Du Berlais has long been the apple of his eye and connections have some high expectations for the season. Expect a huge run from the five-year-old here.

Big weight? No problem

This race is a limited handicap but carrying big weights hasn’t been an obstacle to victory in recent years. Two of the last three winners actually carried top weight and that means you don’t need to worry about the two horses carrying in excess off 11st here.

Official ratings

Seven of the last 10 winners had ratings in excess of 150, which tells us that the limited handicap isn’t preventing the better horses from coming out on top. Only two horses fit the profile this year: Kalif Du Berlais and JPR One.

Going for the double

It has been hard for horses to win this race more than once in recent years and only Greaneteen has managed to do so in the last decade. It’s obviously not beyond the realms of possibility that JPR One can follow up his 2024 success but he could be worth taking on.

Verdict

Kalif Du Berlais was progressive over fences last year and he won the Grade 1 Maghull Novices’ Chase at the Aintree Festival. Paul Nicholls recently suggested that this horse could be up there with the best two-milers he has ever trained, which is high praise indeed. All the trends discussed point to a big run and he’s an exciting prospect for the season.

If you back any of our selections you can watch them live on the free Racing Post app or racingpost.com. Simply log in to one of your bookmaker accounts and click ‘Watch live’ on the racecards.

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