VC Casino.com Gold Cup Handicap Chase Betting Tips

Nozic is all the rage for the VC Casino.com Gold Cup Handicap Chase at Newbury on Saturday and Paul Nicholls' charge is clearly the one to beat following two bloodless victories, and given that he's still relatively unexposed. However, there's no way I am willing to take 6/4 about the six-year-old in a race of this nature. Lucifer Bleu looked an absolute blot on the handicap in last weekend's Racing Post Chase, but was comprehensively beaten, which underlines the fact that taking short prices about horses in these handicap chases is risky business. Lucifer Bleu paid the price for a series of mistakes at Kempton and, as Nozic has shown in each of his quartet of starts in the UK since joining Nicholls' yard from France, he too has a propensity to clout the odd fence. This race is much tougher than those that he has won the last twice and, off a mark 15lb higher than for his last win at Uttoxeter last month, my advice is to oppose the gelding. This is the weakest renewal of this race since the inaugural running in 2004 and features a number of horses that are struggling to recapture their best. The likes of Bold Bishop and Fundamentalist would pick these up and carry them if on song, but they are hard to enthuse about based on recent evidence. While Supreme Prince, winner of the penultimate renewal, possess the requisite ability but is unpredictable and tends to clout the odd fence. The one that tempts me most is the novice Flying Enterprise, who is at the right end of the handicap, has taken to jumping the larger obstacles like a duck to water, relishes plenty of give in the ground, and rates pretty good value at 7/1 with the sponsors.Venetia William's charge didn't cut much ice over hurdles last season but has excelled since returning to the fray and tackling fences - the switching of codes seems to have really aroused the seven-year-old's senses. Forgive him his last run when beaten by Priors Dale at Wincanton, as that run came just seven days after his victory under testing conditions at Cheltenham, while the drop back to the minimum trip at the Somerset venue didn't play to his strengths. The son of Darshaan was impressive at both Cheltenham and, prior to that, at Ascot in his previous two outings, winning both 2m 5f races decisively, impressing with his élan for jumping. Admittedly, Flying Enterprise is taking on more experienced, battle hardened handicappers this time. But, as I alluded to earlier, the lion's share of them are out of sorts at present, while the two six-year-old's at the head of the weights, Nozic and Madison du Berlais, will struggle to concede 19lb and 12lb respectively to the selection, who hasn't finished out of the first two in seven starts to far this term. In addition to the last-named, David Pipe runs Marcel and It Takes Time. The former looks the pick of that David Johnson-owned duo as It Takes Time's performances have gradually deteriorated over the past couple of seasons. Richard Johnson elects to ride Supreme Prince instead of Kalca Mome which suggests he feels that the latter won't reverse the placings with Nozic, who beat him cosily at Chepstow last month, and No Full on Kelrev aren't the most reliable of propositions.Verdict - 1pt Flying Enterprise @ 7/1 (VCbet)