I'm a fan of Dorans Pride and I'm happy to go with him in today's Gold Cup. This year's renewal may not be an absolutely vintage year, but I think it's up to normal standards and Dorans Pride did everything right when winning the Hennessy at Leopardstown. That will have given him confidence.

I like Dorans Pride's consistency. He's a small but sound chaser and very aggressive. You only gave to look at his record and you see that. He was running a blinder when falling at the last in the 1994 SunAlliance Hurdle, won the 1995 Stayers and came back from colic to run third in the Gold Cup last year. See More Business is a very good horse, but Cyborgo would be my outsider against the field. The ground may be faster than ideal for him, but good horses go on any ground.

If there's a good thing on today's card it could be Blowing Wind in the County Hurdle. This is usually such an open race, but the way Blowing Wind won at Sandown on Saturday I think he will be very hard to beat, despite a 7lb penalty.

I had thought the Triumph Hurdle was a match between Darapour and Zafarabad, and of those two I would prefer Darapour, who is a longer price. Charlie Swan is sweet on his chance, but I give a decent each way chance to Buddy Marvel, who was a good flat-horse and should be able to act on the ground.

In the Stayers Paddy's Return will be very hard to beat, and I think Mighty Moss is a rock solid each way bet. Commanche Court is clearly a good horse, but the ground may have turned a little bit against him. It's interesting, though, that the last two Triumph Hurdle winners run in the Stayers.

The Cathcart has been a good race for my family. I won it with Second Schedual in 1993 and my father won it four times, twice with Quita Que and also with Flying Wild and Inkslinger. There's no Irish runner this time, but the way his horses are running, Martin Pipe's Cyfor Malta can beat Jack Doyle.

In the Grand Annual, I put forward Howard Johnson's Down The Fell as a tentative choice.