Coral Gold Cup: Each-Way Trends

The closing months of 2025 are lit up by a series of high-class handicaps, with the December Gold Cup and Welsh Grand National among the highlights still to come. This week sees the Berkshire venue of Newbury take its turn in the spotlight with the 2025 edition of the Coral Gold Cup.

Established in 1967 as the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup, this 3m2f contest may “only” be a handicap but boasts an impressive roll of honour. The list of previous winners includes the mighty Arkle, tough as teak Denman, and fellow Cheltenham Gold Cup winners, Bobs Worth and Native River.

Whether a Cheltenham Gold Cup challenger emerges from this year's field remains to be seen. However, the £250,000 on offer makes this is a fine prize to win in its own right. With the final field confirmed on Thursday morning, we now know the identities of the 24 runners and riders setting out in pursuit of glory.

As ever, we can’t let a thrilling big-field handicap pass by without trying to find the winner - and value each-way options. Here, using data presented by NewBettingSites.uk, we look at the results from 2020 to 2024, focusing on the top four finishers. We highlight the strongest trends over this period and pick out our best bets for the 2025 Coral Gold Cup.

Seven to Eight the Preferred Age Bracket

Rondetto remains the oldest winner in the history of the race, having come home in front at 11 years of age in 1967. Focusing on our sample, the 2021 third, Brahma Bull, was the only runner older than nine to finish in the top four. Overall, 7–8 -year-olds boast the best record, with 14 of the 20 top four finishers in our sample (70%) falling into that bracket.

Recent Run an Advantage

Kandoo Kid (2024) and Cloudy Glen (2021) both won this on their seasonal return. As such, it would be unwise to rule out seasonal debutantes entirely. However, 16 of the 20 top four finishers in our sample (80%) had appeared at least once in the current season. That’s a strong enough stat to earn a point in our scoring system.

Relatively Unexposed in Handicap Chase Sphere

Following on from our trends analysis for the Paddy Power Gold Cup, here we have another race where runners with few handicap chase starts have fared best. In the case of this contest, 18 of the 20 top four finishers in our sample had nine or fewer previous handicap chase starts.

Stamina Considerations

The combination of the 3m2f trip and the generally frenetic pace places a firm emphasis on stamina. When looking at the placed horses in our sample, only two had previously won over 3m2f or further. However, 16 of 20 (80%) had hinted at staying this far by winning over 2m7f or further.

Tried at a Higher Level

Returning to one of our favoured trends for this sort of race, we next looked at the highest Grade each of our top four finishers had previously competed at. All but two had run at Grade 3 level or higher, while 14 of 20 (70%) had lined up in a Grade 1 or Grade 2 event.

Solid Performance Last Time Out

Finally, our stats show that the top four positions are most likely to be filled by runners who posted a similar performance last time out. 13 of the 20 (65%) top four finishers in our sample finished in the first three on their most recent appearance.

The 2025 Field

The 2025 Coral Gold Cup is extremely competitive from a trend’s perspective. Thirteen of the 24 runners score at least five out of six on our key stats. We will focus on the five who score the maximum of six out of six when making our selections:

• Intense Raffles, 28/1 with BetMGM - 2024 Irish Grand National winner from the yard of Thomas Gibney. 6lb higher than when second to Nick Rockett over this trip in the Bobbyjo Chase, but Ben Bromley takes 5lb of that off with his claim
• Three Card Brag, 20/1 with BetMGM - 6lb higher than when scoring last time out at Cheltenham. They didn’t go much of a gallop that day, but he is hard to rule out for Gordon Elliott.
• Blizzard Of Oz, 12/1 with BetMGM - J. J. Slevin takes the ride for Willie Mullins. Yet to race over this far but only got up close home over 2m7f in a Listed event at Wexford in October.
• Resplendent Grey, 13/2 with BresBet - Few concerns in the stamina department, having claimed the bet365 Gold Cup over 3m4½f last season. This Olly Murphy star is 12lb higher here but returned with a Listed success over 2m4f at Carlisle.
• O’Moore Park, 22/1 with BetMGM - Another from the always feared Mullins yard. His 3m win came in his point-to-point days, and his only success under Rules came over 2m4f. More questions than others in the top 5 but dangerous under 10st10lb

Overall, we agree with the market in rating Resplendent Grey as the most likely of our stats leaders to prevail. With the Grand National as the long-term goal, Olly Murphy’s star can continue his ascent with a win here.

For an each-way punt, Blizzard Of Oz is dangerous, but that was only a four-runner affair he won last time and may not have provided a true test of stamina. We aren’t convinced that Three Card Brag will relish a strongly run race at this trip, while O’Moore Park has a mountain to climb with Resplendent Grey on their clash in the bet365 Gold Cup. All of which leaves the one horse who definitely does stay this far – Intense Raffles. At 28/1, he is worth chancing with BetMGM, who are paying out each-way on the first six.

• Recommended Bet: Resplendent Grey to win @ 13/2 with Bresbet
• Recommended Bet: Intense Raffles – each-way @ 28/1 with BetMGM