ONE of the two races that Gordon Elliott did not win at Punchestown on Thursday (both of which, incidentally, were won by Noel Meade) was the Irish Daily Star Chase. That was won by Road To Respect, who confirmed what his trainer Noel Meade had probably suspected for a little while – that he can be trained as a Gold Cup horse this season.

There was a lot to like about the performance that the Gigginstown House horse put up. He was only fifth best of the seven runners on official ratings. He had to concede 2lb to Sub Lieutenant, who was rated 5lb superior to him, and he had to concede 10lb to Minella Rocco, who was rated 8lb superior to him. So he was 7lb and 18lb respectively worse off with that pair than he would have been had Thursday’s race been a handicap.

As well as that, the ground at Punchestown on Thursday was probably softer than ideal for Road To Respect, and he does have a tendency to jump a little to his left, which was in evidence again on Thursday, and which is no good at right-handed Punchestown.

You can point to the flaws, that Minella Rocco probably didn’t run his race, that he only got home by a length and a half from Kilcarry Bridge, who is gallant but who is a 137-rated 10-year-old. And that is all legitimate.

However, Road To Respect won fairly cosily from a race-fit rival, and he had higher rated horses behind him, under circumstances that were less than ideal for him. It was a fine performance.

BETTER GROUND

Noel Meade’s horse should be even better when he gets onto some better ground and he should be better going anti-clockwise. Also, he is only six years old and he has raced just eight times now over fences. He has buckets of scope for progression.

There are two more positives in the context of a possible tilt at the Gold Cup, as well as the fact that Cheltenham goes the right way around for him, and the fact that the ground at the festival is goodish more often than it is softish.

Firstly, he put up the best performance of his career to date when he ran out an impressive winner of the Brown Advisory & Merriebelle Stable Plate at Cheltenham last March. So we know that he can excel at Cheltenham and under Cheltenham Festival conditions.

And secondly, he is by the same sire as, and out of a half-sister to, Road To Riches, who finished third in the Gold Cup in 2015, also for Gigginstown House and Noel Meade. So there is every chance that he will stay the Gold Cup distance. He could even improve for it.

He can be trained as a Gold Cup horse this season for sure, at least for now. It is not going to be easy, obviously, Gold Cups are not easily won, but it was mildly surprising that he was still available at as big as 25/1 for the Gold Cup on Thursday evening.