Gold Cup duo to step up training

Cheltenham Gold Cup hopefuls Silviniaco Conti and Sam Winner are set to step up their preparations, Paul Nicholls has confirmed.

The 52-year-old Ditcheat trainer has his sights firmly fixed on March’s Festival as Silviniaco Conti looks to improve his record further in 2015 having fallen in the race two years ago before finishing fourth 10 months ago.

The eight-year-old has been virtually kept under wraps since securing a second win in the King George VI Chase at Kempton at Christmas, but Nicholls revealed that they will increase his workload this week.

Sam Winner, who secured wins at Cheltenham and Aintree earlier in the season before a third-placed finish in the Lexus Chase at Leopardstown, is also being fancied to perform well in the blue riband.

Nicholls told the Irish Examiner: “Silviniaco Conti looks extremely well. We’ll start tuning him up a little bit now, he’s had an easy three weeks – when I say easy he hasn’t stopped cantering but we haven’t been hard on him.

“I’m very happy with the way he looks and it’s the same with Sam Winner. The two will probably do everything together between now and then, plenty of graft for the next six weeks.”