Presenting Percy Skips Another Festival Prep Race

Presenting Percy has to be the most intriguing Gold Cup favourite we have had in a long time. After missing his intended prep run last week, he has missed another this week after not being amongst the final declarations for the Bobbyjo Chase at Fairyhouse on Saturday.

The likelihood now is that he will go straight to the festival, and if he remains favourite then he will surely be the first Cheltenham Gold Cup favourite to go to the race without running over fences that season. We have not seen him over the bigger obstacles yet, and only seen him once in total when he won a hurdle race last month.

We all remember just how impressive he was in the RSA Chase at the festival last season, and when you combine that with the holes that are appearing in other Gold Cup contenders, that is why he is the favourite for the race. However we have seen nothing from him other than one sublime performance at the festival to believe that he can genuinely win the Gold Cup.

To make things worse for the public, his trainer Pat Kelly refuses to speak to the media about any of his horses, so we cannot get the inside scoop on what exactly is happening and what he is thinking. It is only when we are in a situation like this that we realise just how important it is that trainers like Paul Nicholls and Nicky Henderson are so forthcoming with the media and explaining what is happening with their big stars when something is not quite right.

The Presenting Percy saga is likely to drag on all the way until the feature race, but we are left in what is a very strange situation, that I certainly have never seen before. What happens next with the horse is anyone’s guess, but my feeling is he may go straight to Cheltenham.