Competition for this year’s Crystal Cup is intensifying following the running of leg 8 at Pau this past weekend. And whilst it’s not on the cards that Emanuel Clayeux will send hat-trick winner of Pau’s big cross country to Cheltenham, there are other candidates lining up.
The conditions of this year’s 3m6f race (5,885m) have been changed back to a handicap from a level weights contest, affording runners in each of Cheltenham’s previous two cross country chases in the autumn and early winter a cut at a Festival prize. For the past 10 years, the race has been a conditions event, letting in highly rated horses like Minella Indo, Delta Work and Tiger Roll to clean up.
Whilst the stables of Josef Vana, Patrice Quinton and David Cottin dominate the Trainers’ race for Crystal Cup glory on the back of contributions by several horses, one stable is aiming at Festival success by dint of a single runner.
That runner is Roi Mage, whose unorthodox preparation in British and Irish eyes, could stand him in very good stead in March. Currently rated 145, Roi Mage has raced more frequently in France than in England these past 12 months, narrowly beaten at Corlay in June, winning at Craon in September, and a well-beaten fifth behind Iceo Madrik at Compiegne in November.
Iceo Madrik ran in Cheltenham’s December cross country with an inconclusive result, falling at the fourth in a race where he was hoping to get a handicap mark. Six days earlier, Sweet David had won a cross country at Cheltenham, sidestepping Iceo Madrik. Roi Mage had previously beaten Sweet David handsomely at Craon.
James Griffin, who has masterminded his stable star’s efforts abroad, told the Racing Post,
“He won at Craon and went back to Compiegne but it proved one race too many as he hadn’t a break since the 2023 Grand National, plus he’s been to France three times since that,” said Griffin. “He got a break for seven weeks after and came back in the week of Christmas.
James Reveley and Roi Mage are led in after their listed win at Craon in September
“He’s 13 but he’s fresh for his age mileage-wise. He’ll go straight to Cheltenham and has an entry in the Grand National but we might lean towards the Irish National instead.”
A solid run at Cheltenham by Roi Mage, Sweet David or Iceo Madrik would re-inforce Cheltenham’s attraction as a cross country venue, and put the Roi Mage bang in contention for the Leading Horse category of the Crystal Cup, which he already leads.