Un Temps worth chancing first time up

We stayed with Withernsea last weekend and he gave us a profitable final day at 8/1 as the 2015 turf Flat season drew to a close. Richard Fahey had a fantastic year and I shall be following him closely in 2016, although he has great strength in depth now and often runs two or three in valuable handicaps.

We have had a couple of comfortable short-priced winners over jumps on the line this week and I’m bound to say that Cheltenham on Saturday looks very difficult by comparison. My starting point in a lot of top NH races is the Paul Nicholls operation and it seems to me that ART MAURESQUE has a very fair chance in the Paddy Power Gold Cup after winning impressively at the course on his seasonal reappearance. Stable-companion Sound Investment is a class act and Sam Twiston-Davies rides but jockeys have been known to get it wrong before and, in any case, Nicholls may have called the shots. Art Mauresque has been raised only a few pounds for his victory whereas Sound Investment has been fairly well hammered. I also expect to see Nigel Twiston-Davies’ Double Ross run well because this is his time of year.

The three-mile novices’ chase at 1.15 looks a pretty warm affair and it may be taking a chance to entrust UN TEMPS POUR TOUT with the vote because some of these very promising types have already had a go over fences whereas he makes his debut over them. But he always looked a chaser to me when racing over hurdles and, bearing that in mind, he was very impressive over the smaller obstacles at Auteuil in June. David Pipe’s horses ran well on the opening day of the Open Meeting and he may make his mark here.

At Lingfield, the coral.co.uk Churchill Stakes is an AW Fast Track Qualifier and looks a very good race. There will be money for William Haggas’ Battalion to repeat last year’s victory but MAVERICK WAVE is very useful around here and, even though he recently acted as a pacemaker on turf at the highest level for John Gosden, he remains more than capable of winning a Listed event like this and has the assistance of William Buick. He will be a workable each-way price and is virtually certain to give us a good run for our money.

All the best!

Ian