Long Run team on fact-finding mission Trainer-owner Robert Waley-Cohen is unsure what to expect from Long Run as the 2011 Cheltenham Gold Cup hero makes his return from a near two-year absence at Carlisle on Sunday. The 11-year-old beat the legendary Paul Nicholls-trained pair of Denman and Kauto Star in the blue riband five years ago for Nicky Henderson. He went on to win a second King George VI Chase at Kempton the following year and was placed in the next two renewals of the Gold Cup, but he has not been seen in competitive action since failing to fire in the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris at Auteuil in May 2014. Waley-Cohen has since taken over the training of Long Run and had hoped to get him qualified for the Foxhunter Chase at Cheltenham on Friday. But after running out of time, he instead makes the long trip north to Cumbria to contest the ApolloBet Bet On Lotteries Open Hunters' Chase. Waley-Cohen said: "We don't really know what to expect. He appears in good form, but obviously he's not going to be the horse he was when he won the Gold Cup. "He was rated 182 after he won the Gold Cup and I'm fairly sure he's not that good any more, but how far he's fallen we really don't know. "We were aiming at the Foxhunter , but unfortunately we ran out out of time. "We'll head up to Carlisle and see what we can do." Long Run faces eight rivals over an extended three miles.
