In Excelsis Deo (left)© Photo Healy Racing
Cheltenham experience could come to the fore when In Excelsis Deo returns to the Cotswolds seeking Paddy Power Gold Cup glory on Saturday.
Sporting the colours of JP McManus, the six-year-old was a consistent performer for trainer Harry Fry last term and a regular sight at Prestbury Park.
After rattling the crossbar at first over two miles in the early part of the season, he again made the frame when a staying-on fifth in the Plate when upped to two and a half miles at the Cheltenham Festival.
In Excelsis Deo finished the 2023-24 season as a Cheltenham winner when claiming a deserved victory in the April meeting’s Silver Trophy and with a disappointing summer trip to Galway quickly forgotten, he will be back on familiar ground to take his place in the track’s early-season highlight.
Fry said: “He was really consistent last season. We campaigned over shorter in the first part of the year, he was really unlucky not to win over two miles and I’m sure he would have done at Sandown (when unseating Jonathan Burke at the last).
“When he was stepped up in trip he was a bit unlucky when a staying-on fifth in the Plate at the Festival, but got his due reward back for his consistency throughout the season at Cheltenham in April when winning the Grade Two Silver Trophy.
“That sort of teed us up for a tilt at Galway, but you can put a line through that and it was over before he’d even started. Now we’re looking forward to taking him back to Cheltenham and we hope he has a lovely racing weight and we hope he can be competitive.”
In Excelsis Deo is a 12-1 chance with the sponsors after 15 remained in the hunt for the £84,405 first prize following Thursday’s declarations.
Dan Skelton’s Ryanair Chase winner Protektorat will shoulder top-weight, with Ginny’s Destiny bidding to give Paul Nicholls back-to-back victories following the success of Stage Star last year.
Ginny’s Destiny’s stablemate Il Ridoto is another high up in the betting along with Jamie Snowden’s 2022 winner of the race Ga Law and Harry Derham’s expensive stable debutant Imagine.
