Aintree

1:45 G3 H’cap Hurdle
Fils D’Oudairies (James Bowen)
He ran well on his first start for us at Ascot last time, in fact probably too well because the handicapper put him back up another 2lbs! But he has some quite smart form and handles soft ground so comes into this with a very realistic chance in a wide open contest.

Balco Coastal (Nico De Boinville)
It was simply down to the ground in the Imperial Cup at Sandown last time so, for him and also the likes of Mister Fisher today, I’m hoping it dries out a bit. Whether he quite gets this trip time will tell but it’s an ‘easy’ 2m4f around here and we’ve freshened him up at home. He’s always been a person we’ve liked and I wouldn’t write him off after one poor run.

Broomfield Burg (Aidan Coleman)
He didn’t get the best of passages in the County Hurdle at Cheltenham but he’s a very smart horse who looked good when winning at Kempton over Christmas and if he can bounce back to something like that he’d have to be taken very seriously. He’ll jump a fence one day but there’s still unfinished business over hurdles.

Fred (Daryl Jacob)
He’s had a few silly niggly issues which have meant we’ve not seen as much of him as we’d liked but he has a lot of ability and I think 2m4f around here will be right up his street. The handicapper has dropped him to 130 which looks workable and I can see him going well at big odds.

2:20 G1 Top Novices’ Hurdle
Jonbon (Aidan Coleman)
We had the option of stepping him up to two and a half, and maybe in time, perhaps over fences, that is the direction we’ll go, but for the moment this looked the logical race and I have to admit he has come out of the Supreme in excellent shape. That was a brilliant run and it was a great feeling seeing him and Constitution Hill coming down the hill together with the race between them. Aidan will probably make plenty of use of him around here and he is the obvious one to beat on his Cheltenham run.

First Street (Nico De Boinville)
He arrived at Seven Barrows having been trained to be a flat horse by Ed Walker but they never managed to get him to the track for one reason or another which is probably a good thing in hindsight because he’s ended up with us and has developed into a top class hurdler. We did have the option of the Handicap over two and a half but I think he deserves to take his chance in a Grade One off the back of a brilliant run in the County Hurdle, for which he got put up to 147, which is another reason we chose this. I think the flat track will suit better and he very much enters the reckoning.

3:30 G1 Marsh Chase
Mister Fisher (James Bowen)
He’s been a fantastic servant all the way through but unfortunately he has to have good ground to been seen at his best and apart from Kempton in January, the weather gods have gone against him and I fear it may be a similar story again here. That said, there is hardly any rain forecast on Friday so as long as we haven’t had too much today it may just stay on the good side of soft. His work has been exemplary, as it always is, and he does a lot of it with Jonbon. I would dearly love to see him gain a deserved Grade One, because he definitely has the ability, and it would be wonderful for his owners who, after many years of trying, are still seeking a victory at the highest level.

4:05 G3 Topham Chase
Mister Coffey (Nico De Boinville)
I have to admit this race was never really on the agenda but I had the television on in the office one day and suddenly heard Mister Coffey’s name mentioned so I looked up and saw they were talking about the Topham and that he was favourite! which made me think, ‘perhaps that isn’t such a bad idea’ so I spoke to the owners and we decided to give it a shot. He ran very well in the Kim Muir, and I don’t mind saying he was definitely the one that got away, because we really fancied him, but this is another day and, while he is only a novice, they have a good record in this race and if we’re going to lose our novice status for next year we might as well do it in a race with £84,000 to the winner!

Fantastic Lady (James Bowen)
She has got better and better and I was delighted with her run in the Pendil last time. This is obviously a different ball game altogether but she’s schooled beautifully over our National fences and this sort of test could suit her.

Janika (Daryl Jacob)
He’s been a little bit out of form but we’ve done lots of work to keep him fresh and happy at home which will hopefully work and if he takes to something like this he could easily run a big race in first time blinkers.

Morning Vicar (Sam Twiston-Davies)
I like this lad; he’s a great big horse who unfortunately unseated at Foinavon last year but this race has been the objective all season and I was starting to get slightly worried that he might not even get in, but thankfully a few came out which meant he was able to sneak in down near the bottom of the weights and he comes here in good shape. I guess he’s a pretty big price but if he can manage to hunt his way around and avoid trouble I wouldn’t be surprised to him run into a place.

5:15 Conditional/Amateur H’cap Hurdle
Gipsy De Choisel (Mr Ben Bromley)
He’s had very little racing and can be quite keen in his races but I’m hoping he’s settled down now because we quite like him. He would probably have won at Ffos Las but fell at the final flight when we last saw him, but he’s done plenty of work so shouldn’t be lacking for fitness and a mark of 128 looks interesting.