Two Kings Clash At Punchestown Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Kicking King faces a fascinating clash with British raider Kingscliff in the Guinness Gold Cup at Punchestown tomorrow. Tom Taaffe´s seven-year-old was an impressive winner of the Festival prize on his last start and will be bidding for a fourth Grade One win this season after also taking the King George VI Chase and the John Durkan Memorial Chase. Robert Alner´s Kingscliff chased him home at Kempton on Boxing Day but missed the Gold Cup having failed to satisfy his trainer in a piece of work. Irish Hennessy winner Rule Supreme returns to fences as he bids to atone for an unfortunate early exit in the Liverpool Hurdle at Aintree. The Francois Doumen-trained First Gold, winner of this race in 2003 and third last year, takes his chance again, with Noel Meade´s Arctic Copper and the Edward O´Grady-trained Pizarro completing the six-runner field. Alner reports Kingscliff to be back in top form with his preparations having gone to plan. The Dorset handler said: 'There was nothing seriously wrong with him before Cheltenham, he just wasn´t firing on all cylinders. 'It was unbelievable - but if they´re not right, there´s nothing you can do. 'We put him out in a field for pretty much the whole of Cheltenham week and when he came back in he was fine. 'He has travelled over well, ate up and we´ve got him nice and relaxed by getting him away from the racecourse a bit. 'My wife Sally has been riding him out and he is relaxed, so we are just looking forward to tomorrow, although we have one big problem - a horse called Kicking King!' Alner is hoping the extra furlong tomorrow, along with a more testing track, could help Kingscliff reverse his two-and-a-half-length Kempton deficit. 'As long as he runs up to form we won´t worry too much about beating Kicking King. The extra furlong will definitely help us and, to be honest, Kempton wasn´t really our track,' he explained. 'A sharp, fast track doesn´t really suit but there are so few opportunities that we had to run him there.' The going at Punchestown is currently described as soft but Alner would not mind a little more rain. 'A drop of rain overnight would be perfect but it doesn´t matter too much to him,' he added. 'We have been happy with him and we will have to see what happens tomorrow.' ? PA Sport
