Tony McCoy will ride Sir Des Champs in the Cheltenham Gold Cup

 

• Champion jockey switches mounts at 11th hour
• Original ride Sunnyhillboy is a non-runner

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• Tony Paley and Chris Cook
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 15 March 2013 09.33 GMT

Tony McCoy will ride Sir Des Champs in the Cheltenham Gold Cup after his original mount was declared a non-runner. Photograph: Julian Herbert/Action Images

Tony McCoy has stepped in to take the ride on Sir Des Champs in theCheltenham Gold Cup on Friday after his original mount, Sunnyhillboy, was declared a non-runner on the morning of the race.

Confirming the news, Willie Mullins, trainer of Sir Des Champs, said: "Fortunately, the other horse has come out of the race, so I was able to use him [McCoy]. I'm delighted to have such a good replacement." Asked how he assessed the horse's chance in the race, Mullins said: "I'm hoping for the best."

"It's obviously a good spare ride to get," McCoy said. Asked about concerns over the quality of Sir Des Champs' jumping, he said: "He's jumped better as a novice. His jumping hasn't been as sharp this year as you'd have liked but it'd be a good day for him to come right, so hopefully he jumps as well as he did here last year, when he won. He's got a very good chance."

Speaking to William Hill online, McCoy added: "There's four horses in the Gold Cup at the head of the betting pretty much since Christmas time. Long Run won the King George for a second time, Silviniaco Conti hasn't done anything wrong, he's been very impressive. Bobs Worth's form is pretty solid here at Cheltenham, he's four from four and Sir Des Champs is two from two. It looks like he's improved each year.

"Those four horses, their form probably stands a little bit above the others, though obviously The Giant Bolster was second last year, Captain Chris ran pretty well in the King George the last day and I know some people give Cape Tribulation a little bit of a chance to sneak in the places. But those four horses at the head of the betting, for me, it's very hard to split them. They've all got good potential and you could see any one of the four of them [winning]."

Sunnyhillboy was scratched from the race six hours before the jumps season's highlight by trainer Jonjo O'Neill due to an unsatisfactory scope. McCoy, who was due to have ridden Sunnyhillboy, has switched to Sir Des Champs, who is without a rider after Davy Russell was taken to hospital on Thursday with a punctured lung.

There was speculation at the track on Thursday that McCoy was the first choice for Sir Des Champs after Russell was taken to hospital and forced to give up the mount, but Mullins was told by officials that he could only book the champion jockey if Sunnyhillboy became a non-runner. Jonjo O'Neill, Sunnyhillboy's trainer, has also withdrawn Cloudy Copper from the Albert Bartlett Hurdle on Friday's card.

There has also been speculation online of tension between the owner and trainer of Sir Des Champs as to the choice of McCoy, with suggestions that Mullins would rather use his regular second-choice jockey, Paul Townend. But that speculation is likely to be wide of the mark, since Mullins asked a BHA official on Thursday if he could use McCoy and appeared irritated to be told he could not.

There has been widespread comment on the convenience of Sunnyhillboy becoming a non-runner when there was no other way for McCoy to take the mount on Sir Des Champs, but Robin Mounsey of the British Horseracing Authority said that any suggestion of a link was purely speculative and without foundation. "No wrongdoing has taken place," he said.

Mounsey said the rule preventing a straight switch of a jockey from one horse to another was instituted to protect punters, on the basis that some would have backed Sunnyhillboy after the final declarations were made on Wednesday in the expectation that McCoy would ride.

"If there's a good reason why that switch could be made, it can be permitted," Mounsey said. "If A P McCoy was linked to Gigginstown [owners of Sir Des Champs] in any way, then it could be considered.

"But the fact was that McCoy is not in any way associated with Gigginstown. If it had been two J P McManus horses, there could be a good reason there." McManus, owner of Sunnyhillboy, is McCoy's principal employer.

McCoy has had five rides for Gigginstown Stud in Britain in the past five seasons, winning in their colours on Fists Of Fury at Wetherby in November 2011. He was also third in their colours on Siegemaster in a Grade One at Leopardstown's Christmas meeting in 2008.

Ante-post punters who have backed Sunnyhillboy will lose out unless they had backed the horse with a 'non-runner, no bet' offer many bookmakers had introduced in the last fortnight during the run-up to the Cheltenham Festival.

Sunnyhillboy's price varied from 16-1 to 33-1 on Friday morning with the major bookmakers, who were quick to adjust their prices once news came in of O'Neill's announcement that he was withdrawing his horse. William Hill now bet: 11-4 Bobs Worth, 4-1 Sir Des Champs, 9-2 Silviniaco Conti, 5-1 Long Run, 10 Captain Chris, 12-1 The Giant Bolster, 16-1 Cape Tribulation, 66-1 Monbeg Dude and Wayward Prince.