Long Run has Punchestown option If Long Run is to run again this season it will probably be at next month's Punchestown Festival. Last year's Cheltenham Gold Cup winner had to settle for third place in the 2012 renewal, finishing three lengths adrift of Synchronised at the line. The seven-year-old had twice finished second behind Kauto Star earlier in the year before landing the Denman Chase at Newbury on his final prep run. "Long Run just ran a bit flat. If he had run like he did at Newbury, he would have jumped the last and stormed up the hill, but that's horses, they are not machines," said owner Robert Waley-Cohen. "We need to regroup and decide whether he will run again this season." Trainer Nicky Henderson mentioned Aintree as a possible option but Waley-Cohen might favour the Punchestown Gold Cup at the Festival meeting if Long Run were to run again this term. "I would say Punchestown would be more likely than Aintree at this stage and that would obviously give him a little longer to recover," he added. "There's the three-mile-one-furlong Grade One to consider but he might not run at all."
