Horse Racing

2011 Irish Hennessy Gold Cup Preview

The 2011 Grade 1 Irish Hennessy Gold Cup start time is this Saturday 5 February at 3:45PM. Read on for our best Irish Hennessy Gold Cup tips and the Bet365 Hennessy Gold Cup odds.

At Bet365, the 2011 Irish Hennessy Gold Cup favourite is Pride of Dulcote at 13/8 to win. This is quite impressive given his short career, even if he is currently undefeated in chase starts. Both his prior wins were in lower class races and he has so far only faced a field of 4 or less in his chase performances. We know that a larger field has not affected him in other types of jumps races, but we’d be wary of backing him at such a short price.

Joncol follows in the 2011 Irish Hennessy Gold Cup betting at 5/2 to win on Bet365. While he hasn’t had the most outstanding season so far, Joncol was the 2010 Hennessy Gold Cup winner. He took that after a third place in the 2009 Grade 1 Lexus Chase… and he just recently took third in the 2010 Lexus Chase. The Irish Hennessy Gold Cup history suggests that previous winners have an advantage in future runnings of the race, with 5 horses having won at least twice in the race’s 24 years. This means Joncol really cannot be discounted even if he did debut this season with a last place finish.

Cooldine and Money Trix are both in the Bet365 Irish Hennessy Gold Cup odds at 7/1 to win.

Cooldine pulled up in his last start in the Lexus Chase, having placed only fifth in the John Durkan Memorial before that. Recent performances suggest that Cooldine is on the absolute tail end of his career, and we don’t have faith in him to pull off an upset here, especially when he didn’t manage the win last year.

Money Trix finished sixth in the 2010 Hennessy Gold Cup, but he finished second ahead of Joncol in the Lexus Stakes about a month ago. He managed the same feat previously, however, and it did not lead to a Gold Cup win. We think that Money Trix is certainly capable of winning this one and 7/1 seems like a good price, but our gut feeling says he isn’t up to it.

China Rock and Kempes are both 10/1 in the Hennessy Gold Cup antepost odds at Bet365.

China Rock is probably going to get a little shorter in the next few days, thanks to casual punters who will look at only a basic Irish Hennessy Gold Cup form guide. If you take a closer look, you see that China Rock has never gone well at Leopardstown. This makes us think he’s not a terrible chance at 10/1 with his recent record, but we’d avoid him if the price were lower.

Kempes is a Grade 1 chase winner, but totally unreliable. You can never be sure if he’ll dominate or fall just short of glory. We think his last season was probably the peak of his career, and we don’t expect much better than the occasional place from here on out if he continues in Class 1 chases.

Other horses in the Bet365 2011 Irish Hennessy Gold Cup odds include Barker at 12/1, The Listener at 12/1, Glencove Marina at 14/1, Let Yourself Go at 25/1, Vic Venturi at 25/1, Trafford Lad at 33/1, and Made In Taipan at 40/1.

If you would like to take advantage of our top 2011 Irish Hennessy Gold Cup tips, then we recommend you sign up with Bet365 and bet now!