Pilot can show the way

The good news regarding tomorrow's featured £105,000 Gold Cup at Newbury is that the tried and trusted method of finding the winner is to pinpoint a horse who is fresh from a successful novice season with the potential to progress to a higher level.

But the bad news is that any number of horses in the line-up fit the necessary profile.

An overnight market of 7-1 the field looks more than justified for the most fascinating puzzle of the season, but Harbour Pilot looks well worth a bet as he bids to become the first Irish-trained winner of this historic race since Bright Highway won for Michael O'Brien back in 1980.

A tendency to make the odd clumsy error just when it's least expected is one of very few flaws in this handsome seven-year-old's make-up.

One such blunder saw him part company with Paul Carberry passing halfway when strongly fancied for a major novice event at the Cheltenham Festival last March, but overall the positives outweigh the negatives by a clear margin.

The probability of testing conditionsis clearly a major plus, as Harbour-Pilot's record proves conclusively that he can sluice through even the most cloying mud in the way that very few horses are capable of. And then there's his eyecatching form. Harbour Pilot looked just about the best staying novice trained in Ireland for much of last winter and proved the point on atrocious ground in a Grade 1 contest at Leopardstown in February when galloping on relentlessly to forge clear of Truckers Tavern and Youlneverwalkalone.

Of the rest, Bounce Back has been at the top of the ante-post lists for several weeks now, but a 14lb rise for winning a big handicap at Sandown in April is off putting given that it's possible he caught several of his main rivals at the end of a hard spring campaign there.

Frosty Canyon boasts a fine Newbury record and could be given a very solid chance if Paul Webber's horses were in better form, while the northern raider Hussard Collonges is a fearless jumper whose take-no-prisoners style will ensure that only the strong survive on the final circuit.