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THE slight surprise in the Gold Cup Handicap Chase (Cheltenham, 2.20) is that Festival Trophy hero, Protektorat, will line up under top weight of 12 stone, a mark of 167 for this valuable prize at the home of national hunt racing this afternoon as Dan Skelton bids to put plenty of prize money space between himself and Paul Nicholls and Willie Mullins before the turn of the year.

But ironically that will probably be a relief for Nicholls as it means that his Turner Novices’ Chase runner-up, Ginny’s Destiny, escapes carrying joint op weight and along with former winner Ga Law.

That in turn means that last year’s third, Il Ridoto will receive a massive 29lbs from the top weight and will race from a mark one pound lower than 12 months ago, and he is among a group of lightly weighted entries that have interesting each-way claims.