Sam Twiston-Davies nominates a novice hurdler he dreams will make up into a Cheltenham Festival contender and a few familiar faces in his horses to follow.
He finished fifth in the Champion Bumper and then opened up his hurdling career with a victory at Perth when dead-heating. I’m hoping he can improve a lot for the experience. The dream is to end up back at Cheltenham in March in something like the Neptune, so hopefully he’s progressing.
He won two bumpers last season and beat a good horse in his first one, Orbys Legend, who win the Silver Trophy at Chepstow earlier this month. We’ll see how he progresses in novice hurdles this season but I can see him having a future over fences.
I couldn’t not say Clan Des Obeaux! He’s obviously Harry Cobden’s ride but he’s a horse that’s been very good to me and I was reading the other day that he’s going to start his season in the King George. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for him as he bids to win the race for a third time.
I’m looking forward to Fantastikas going novice handicap chasing. He only won over hurdles the once but he bumped into some nice horses in finishing second plenty of times. I’m not sure where he’ll start out but I think he’ll be a nice staying handicap chaser for the future, I’m looking forward to him.
Again he’s not my ride he’s Daryl Jacob’s. But if we were to get a really wet winter I can see him having a good season in handicaps, he seems in really good shape at home. His schooling has been good, things didn’t go right for him last year but I think he’s better than we saw last season.