Cheltenham

12.10pm

Pipesmoker

This looks a good novices’ hurdle and our Chantry House looks a fair prospect, but Pipesmoker shaped well for me when second in a Huntingdon bumper in May. Okay, he was beaten a long way but the third came out and won recently, and he is hopefully the type to be seen to even better effect over hurdles. His schooling has gone to plan but, as I said, this race could take a lot of winning.

12.45pm

Pym

He shaped very well over 2m4f against a good horse at Huntingdon but he clearly improved a fair bit for the step up to 3m at Ascot last time, winning in the style of a 6yo going places. I was pretty taken by the performance and it is a big plus that he now comes to Cheltenham with a couple of chase starts under his belt. He faces no easy task here for all there are only five runners, and he has a 5lb penalty, but he certainly looks the one to beat after what he did at Ascot last time. Any more rain wouldn’t worry him and he looks a very exciting prospect in this division. Let’s hope he can progress again, as he probably needs to.

3.40pm

Falco Blitz

He was on a workable handicap mark after his Fakenham success and I thought I was travelling like the winner for a long way over 2m5f here last time, only to get picked up close home by a very progressive horse in Jatiluwih. He has gone up 4lb for that defeat but that was probably to be expected given the profile of the winner, and the fact that the third was a comfortable distance away too, and I suppose the step up in trip may be more of a concern. We will soon find out if that is an issue, but he comes from the point field and hopefully he will be fine. He looks to be progressing nicely.