Strong King team on bonusprint.com Gold Cup day

Alan King today revealed that he hopes to have a number of runners at Cheltenham on Saturday including Massac, who will line up in the feature £110,000 Grade Three bonusprint.com Gold Cup (2.40pm), the prestigious handicap chase over two miles and five furlongs, or the £22,000-added Jenny Mould Memorial Handicap Chase (12.55pm) over an extended two miles.

Massac has won all three chases that he has competed in this season including the Life From Coloroll Chase over two and a half miles at Windsor on November 20, when he kept on gamely to deny Mondial Jack by half a length.

The Barbury Castle trainer said: 'To be honest I haven´t come to a decision as to whether Massac will run in the bonusprint.com Gold Cup or the Jenny Mould Memorial Handicap Chase although he will most definitely go to Cheltenham.

'I´m looking forward to running him but I just don´t know which one yet. He´s come out of Windsor in very good form and he´s due to work tomorrow but we couldn´t be happier with him at the moment.'

The five-year-old has gone up sharply in the ratings for his last two victories. Massac won a handicap chase over two miles, four and a half furlongs at Huntingdon on November 9. when getting the better of The Extra Man by 25 lengths. He raced off a mark of 130 then and was subsequently put up to 145 after his Windsor victory.

'The handicapper dropped Massac to 144 last week but I´ve no idea whether he can keep defying these rises in the weights,' said King.

'I´m not sure which going Massac prefers although I think he´s the sort of horse who would probably handle most and it doesn´t matter too much. The one thing he probably wouldn´t want is quick ground but we don´t have to worry about that this weekend.

'I don´t think he´ll get three miles - I don´t know what his optimum is but it´s probably a very stiff two miles which is why we might run him in the Jenny Mould Memorial Handicap Chase. I don´t think he´d want to go much further than two miles and five furlongs around Cheltenham.'

Jackson would step up in trip and class if contesting the concluding £35,000 Grade Two Brit Insurance Novices´ Hurdle (3.45pm) over three miles on Saturday. This contest is the first in an integrated seasonal package in the National Hunt calendar comprising four 3-mile Grade 2 Novices´ Hurdle, each backed by first-time racing sponsors, Brit Insurance, a UK-based international general insurance, reinsurance and investment group. The series culminates in a new race at next year´s four day Cheltenham Festival, the £75,000 Grade Two Brit Insurance Novices´ Hurdle on totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup day (Friday, March 18). The remaining two races in the series are at Doncaster on January 29 and at Haydock Park on February 19.

The seven-year-old was last seen in action when beaten just over a length and a quarter into third by Patches in a two mile, six furlong novices´ hurdle at Wincanton last month on his debut for King.

The trainer said: 'Again I´ll see how Jackson works and I´ll have a look at the race but he might well run in the Brit Insurance Novices´ Hurdle.

'He was a little bit unlucky at Wincanton but I was delighted with his run and the first two have come out and won since.

'I´d like to think that he would improve for the run and, whether he´s improved enough to be competitive on Saturday, time will tell but he´s a horse that we haven´t had long and I like him very much and we might well get brave and take our chance.'

Trouble At Bay is a possible for the £20,000-added Relkeel Hurdle (1.30pm) over an extended two miles and five furlongs, having finished just over five and a quarter lengths behind Monet´s Garden, whom trainer Nicky Richards has already confirmed as a likely runner in the race, in the two mile four furlong Coloroll Hurdle at Windsor last month.

King continued: 'It looked as if Trouble At Bay didn´t get the trip at Windsor but I´m going to try again and find out once and for all.

'The plan is to let him take his chance in the Relkeel Hurdle and then we can hopefully map out a plan after Saturday.'

The trainer may also be represented in the opening £17,500 Mr Crumb Premium Stuffings Juvenile Novices´ Hurdle (12.20pm) over two miles one furlong in which he has two of the 16 entries. The title for this race has come about after Irish-based Mr Crumb Premium Stuffings saw off more than 30 rivals to win the sponsorship in a competition, organised by Cheltenham racecourse, among small to medium-sized businesses in Ireland.

'I might well run Adjami or Daryal in the Mr Crumb Premium Stuffings Juvenile Novices´ Hurdle but I´m not sure which one yet,' he explained.

Adjami is an unraced son of Entrepreneur, while Daryal would be making his jumping bow, having previously been trained on the Flat in France by Alain De Royer-Dupre.

'They are both French imports and I suppose that we´ve had them now for about two months. They´ve done everything that we´ve asked of them so far. They´re due to work tomorrow and then school after that and, if it goes according to plan, we´ll probably let one of them take their chance,' he added.

Simon Claisse, Cheltenham´s Clerk of the Course, said this morning: 'The going remains currently Good on the chase and hurdle courses and Good, Good to Soft in Places on the cross-country course.

'On the basis of the current forecast, which is for a dull, cloudy week with very little rain, minimal change is expected before the weekend.'

The bonusprint.com Gold Cup and the totesport Bula Hurdle form part of the British Horseracing Board´s Order of Merit series, which awards points in the top 63 races this season and a £200,000 prize for the top horse.