KEMPTON – SATURDAY

12.40pm

Downtown Getaway

He was obviously very disappointing at Newbury back in November, where he choked, but he has had a break since then and hopefully he can show us his true worth here after a wind op. If the horse that turns up here is the one that won for me at Ascot last season, then I think his mark of 131 is very fair. He has been in good order at home and schooling well.

1.15pm

Pistol Whipped

He didn’t get past the first at Leicester last time, so he is obviously light on experience, but you can forgive that fall as the horse in front of him left a back leg and tripped him on landing. It wasn’t his fault at all. He has always been a chaser-in-waiting and he had earlier looked very impressive when winning a handicap on that track on his fencing debut. Obviously that win only came off a mark of just 128 and this is a big step up in class for him, but he will have his ground and trip and he is clearly lightly-raced and unexposed in this sphere. This will tell us a lot more about him.

3.02pm

Buzz

He was a smart horse on the Flat, rated 98 and ground-versatile and a winner on soft, and he has impressed in winning both his starts over hurdles so far, despite only edging home by small margins. I was on board when he won on his debut at Taunton where he beat the subsequent Grade 2 winner Galahad Quest, and then he went on to beat another smart sort at Doncaster. He looks a very useful performer in the making, and he could well be the one to beat here.

3.35pm

Dashing Perk

He is 2lb out of the weights here, which clearly isn’t ideal, but he has obviously returned from a long way break in very good form this season. He won over 2m4f on his reappearance at Sandown and then ran another solid race when second at the same track last time. He is effectively 4lb higher here, so he clearly needs to progress again, but hopefully the step up to 3m in ground he likes will see him step forward and be competitive.

4.45pm

Bothwell Bridge

I was very happy with his debut effort for me at Huntingdon last month. I think that was a decent race and, with that run under his belt, I’d be hopeful he can go close to going one better here. You obviously don’t know what you will be bumping into in these races, though.

FONTWELL – SUNDAY

3.20pm

William Henry

Just the five runners, but you can make a case for them all. William Henry probably doesn’t quite see out three miles, so he ran okay at Cheltenham last time over that trip, and he should be going close here with conditions to suit. Obviously, he did brilliantly for me when winning the Coral Cup last season and I thought he ran a great race under a penalty on his return in the Relkeel.