Is Monkfish a Gold Cup winner in waiting? Our experts give their verdict

Monkfish and groom Brigitta Doran pictured at Cheltenham before his second Cheltenham Festival win in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase

Edward Whitaker

‘I have a feeling 6-1 will look a big price’

There is still some 6-1 about Monkfish for next year’s Gold Cup and that seems more than fair to me. There is no denying that it was his sloppiest display over fences so far, but how many horses would have come down if they got as low as he did at the last? Seven out of ten maybe. We now know he has the ability to get himself out of trouble to go with a remarkable amount of raw ability. You would imagine he will take the Savills Chase-Irish Gold Cup route next year and, right now, he is the most likely winner of the 2022 Gold Cup. I have a feeling 6-1 will look a big price in 12 months’ time.David Jennings

‘He has the scope to develop into a genuine Gold Cup horse’

In short, no. That is not to say he cannot develop into a Gold Cup contender and even win the great race, but Monkfish still has to improve roughly a stone to enter the fray. Getting your own way in a six-runner Brown Advisory is very different to the demands of a Gold Cup and if his jumping nearly cost him in the former, it would certainly rule him out of the latter. He has the scope to develop into a genuine Gold Cup horse, but the 9-2 is a rancid price and even the 6-1 doesn’t look like value to me.Stuart Riley

‘He couldn’t be in better hands with Willie Mullins’

Envoi Allen might have something to say about that, but the answer is the same as it would have been 12 months ago, yes, and little has changed after a flawless season over fences. Raw when landing the Albert Bartlett last year, the seven-year-old did not produce a wow performance in the Shishkin mould, but still recorded a comfortable victory on ground quicker than he might have been used to. He couldn’t be in better hands with Willie Mullins, who seems to have sky-high belief in the handsome son of Stowaway, which is good enough for me.James Burn

Watch Monkfish win at the Cheltenham Festival

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FIRST PUBLISHED 3:40PM, MAR 17 2021