Punchestown Festival: Clan Des Obeaux seeks more Gold

Clan Des Obeaux will face eight rivals as he goes for back-to-back victories in the Ladbrokes Punchestown Gold Cup, the highlight on day two of the Festival meeting.

Paul Nicholls' charge kept on strongly to outgun Al Boum Photo in the hands of Sam Twiston-Davies 12 months ago, but it is Harry Cobden who rides the 10-year-old time around.

Having started his season with a silver medal in the King George VI Chase, Clan Des Obeaux was slightly underwhelming when finishing third in the Denman Chase in February. However, he was back to his very best when recording consecutive victories in the Betway Bowl at Aintree earlier this month and his handler is looking forward to this attempt at a spring double.

"We're always made very welcome. We love it and in the future, maybe we'll have even more to come. If we have the right ones, we'll be there," said Nicholls.

"It's about running the right horses in the right races. We thought that the Ladbrokes Gold Cup would suit Clan and that's why we're coming back again this year. It's going to be a tough old race with Allaho and he had a harder race at Aintree than last year, but it was a career best in many ways.

"But this race suits him, the track suits him and the way he ran last year shows it suits him and you've got to target those races for him."

Nicholls added: "It's a waste of time running him around Cheltenham. He hates it, as Silviniaco Conti did, but you've got to run them in the right races, as we did bringing two horses to Punchestown last year and they both won."

Dual Ryanair Chase winner Allaho returns to three miles for the first time since running in the Savills Chase in December 2020. Since then the market leader has tasted defeat only once, when dropping back to two miles at