'Please God, we'll have another crack' - Harry Redknapp vows to be back with The Jukebox Man as Ben Pauling reports 'a little issue' with star

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Harry Redknapp and Ben Pauling vowed to be back at Cheltenham on Gold Cup day after watching The Jukebox Man fade out of contention in the most prestigious jumps race of all.

The Jukebox Man's emergence as a credible Gold Cup contender had captured the imagination of the wider sporting world thanks to Redknapp's involvement, but there was no fairytale ending on the final day of the festival. 

"We travelled great to two out but then we fell in a bit of a hole," said Redknapp. "Overall he jumped great and ran great. He's given everything today and has hopefully come back safe and sound, which is the main thing. But Gaelic Warrior was fantastic today. By God, didn't he win well? He was really impressive."

Redknapp had revealed earlier in the day that The Jukebox Man had suffered a setback in the build-up to the race and felt that might have had an impact on his performance. 

He added: "It's been a great week. I've loved the build-up and the dream. To have a runner here with a chance was fantastic for me. I'm not making excuses, because the winner was different class, but we missed a week's work and he seemed just to run out of steam today. But that's how it goes and, please God, we'll have another crack. 

"It would have been great if he'd won but he still gave it his best shot."

The Jukebox Man: King George winner was no match for Gaelic Warrior on the dayCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

Pauling, who said that rider Ben Jones had reported The Jukebox Man to have made a noise during the race, felt the setback had not been much of an issue at the time. 

"He had a pimple on the underside of his epiglottis that we had to remove about a fortnight ago but it was no big gig," said Pauling. "In hindsight now, maybe it was going to cause us more trouble than we thought might be the case. But he was in great form coming here, he looked a picture and he travelled and jumped as well as any of them.

"Ben said he did just make a little noise at the top of the hill and that's an obvious place to look. We rectify that and we come back a better horse. I'm not overly worried and am looking forward to the future."

On what that future might look like for The Jukebox Man, Pauling added: "We'll get him home and have a look but I wouldn't rule out going to Ireland or something like that [this season]. He's not had a hard season.

"I wouldn't rule out coming back here for this race next year either. People will say he doesn't quite stay up that hill, but he was beaten before the last two and a half furlongs. There's a little issue we need to sort and we'll sort it."

Read more from day four of the Cheltenham Festival:

Gallant Gaelic Warrior oozes class as he canters to Cheltenham Gold Cup glory for Willie Mullins and 'speechless' Paul Townend 

'Only 50-1!' - Willie Mullins unearths another huge-priced winner of the Triumph as Apolon De Charnie powers home 

'She never missed a beat' - Dinoblue shows her class with 'career-best' in Mares' Chase repeat 

'Willie will have more runners today than I've got in training' - Adam Nicol overjoyed with Minella Study third in Triumph 

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