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Remind me next time

“The Ladbrokes Winter Festival begins on Friday afternoon and with it the return of Thistlecrack in the grade two Long Distance Hurdle. We also get to see Willoughby Court clash with Yanworth in a cracking Ladbrokes Novices’ Chase to start the day.” JJ

12.20 Newbury

The first race at Newbury is a maiden hurdle run over two miles. Whilst I usually leave these kinds of races alone this particular maiden has been a cracker for the past two years having been won by Jenkins last year and Champion Hurdle winner Buveur D'air the year before.

There is one in here that I would keep my eye on for the rest of the season and that's BLACK OP (11/4) for Tom George and Adrian Heskin.

After taking a point-to-point by 25 lengths he was bought for £210,000 and run in bumpers by Mr George. On his first start he won a red hot race at Doncaster with the highly touted Henderson gelding Claimintakinforgan in second. We last saw him at Aintree where he didn't show his true running when tiring late on, but for the majority of the race he took them along like a good horse.

He could be a sneaky one for a big novice hurdle this season over two miles so I'd keep him on side here.

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1.50 Newbury

Yanworth has put in two very suspect rounds of jumping on his first two chase starts around Exeter. The first he managed to win ahead of Sternrubin, who has disappointed since, but he got it all wrong at the seventh when coming down last time.

I fancied seven-year-old in the Champion Hurdle last season but he put in a bitterly disappointing display before coming back to win over three miles at Aintree.

However, I’m willing to chance last season’s Neptune winner WILLOUGHBY COURT (2/1) for Ben Pauling to land the spoils.

The son of Court Cave, progressed hugely from run to run last season and wasn’t seen again after his Cheltenham heroics until his chasing debut at Huntington, which he won, albeit not as impressively as some may have hoped.

One problem was that he tended to jump left that day, so this return to a left-handed track should suit.

What’s more, that was his first run of the season, and considering his three worst performances have come first time out, the fact that he won at all can be seen as a positive.

Many have labelled last year’s Neptune a poor renewal, but the second horse, Neon Wolf, had the potential to be something incredibly special, and to get the better of him was no mean feat.

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2.25 Newbury

Next up is a competitive little handicap chase run over two and a half miles.

Willie Boy looked decent for Venetia Williams last time at this track and still may be well handicapped based on that win.

But O O SEVEN (7/1) is the wrong price at 7/1 for Nicky Henderson and will likely go off much shorter come race time.

He comes here a stone heavier than Willie Boy but showed he can carry this kind of weight when running lovely race when last seen in the Topham, placing fourth of 22.

But even more interesting is his record first time out that reads 1-1-1, including a 10-length victory at Cheltenham at last year’s November meeting.

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15.00 Newbury

I was going to leave the feature alone because I just couldn't split the great clash between Thistlecrack and UNOWHATIMEANHARRY (2/1).

However, the drift on the Fry horse has been enough to tempt me in for a one point selection. At his best Thistlecrack could beat possibly any horse from the last 20 years over hurdles at three miles, but from what the Tizzards have been saying, this is clearly a prep run for bigger things to come over fences late this season.

What's more, they have a history of running top class horses just to get a run into them even when they're not fit, think Fox Norton last season at Newbury when he was clearly wasn't ready.

Also, UnowhatImeanHarry is no mug – in fact he's probably the best three mile hurdler in the UK and Ireland when you take out his Stayers' Hurdle run, where he didn't run to form. He has to give weight to Thistlecrack, and even if the King George winner is 80-90% fit he will more than likely still win, but at the prices I'm with UnowhatImeanHarry this time.

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