PNicholls

[i]14:00 Aintree[/i] [b]Big Buck's[/b] Has come in his coat and looks in superb nick at the moment. I suppose the only possible negative about his chance here is that this is his fifth run of the season, having taken in an extra race this year. But he certainly shows no sign of being over the top. Had quite a hard race - for him at least - when winning his fourth World Hurdle at Cheltenham last month but he did what he had to do, as he always does, and ground out the win. Aims to win his fourth Liverpool Hurdle today and last year's win in the race was arguably his most impressive over hurdles, never coming off the bridle in beating Grands Crus by 5 lengths. This year's renewal doesn't look anywhere near as strong. Will I be disappointed if he is beaten? Yes, of course. But this is...

t would be fair to say that Saturday wasn't a great day at the office for me. Plenty of our horses didn't show their true form and even Dan mentioned to me on the drive home that, as far as he could remember, this was the first Saturday we didn't have a winner since he has been working with me. In fact we have only had one winner in our last 31 runners; not a particularly good stat to read. I don't like giving excuses but I do want to keep punters informed and, as our weekends runners came back from the track, a good few of them had dirty noses and were coughing. Nothing serious but it's got to be monitored and gives us some clues as to why a few of the team didn't run to their true form, which was plain to see. Coughs come and go at yards and there is always the odd horse with one but,...

I see that Timeform rate Al Ferof's third in the Victor Chandler at Ascot as the best performance by a novice chaser this season - and I couldn't agree more. I gather they now rate Al Ferof on 161 and that is 3lb ahead of Grands Crus' Feltham win (which was 158p). Although he jumped a bit novicey on occasions, I was delighted with his fencing in the main. He wasn't foot perfect, but that is exactly why I ran him in the race. Namely, for the experience in a strongly run, high class race that he is very likely to get in the Arkle - and Saturday's race will clearly stand him in very good stead. I know we always say it at this time of the year but this season's race - with Sprinter Sacre, Peddlers Cross and Cue Card to name but three - really looks a hot renewal. I am under no illusions...

Al Ferof doesn't run at Bangor today for a number of reasons but chief among them is that Ruby isn't available to ride him. So we take the horse to [b]Cheltenham[/b] on Sunday, where he is. And that change of plan has two added benefits; firstly, we will avoid a potentially hard race with [b]Peddlers Cross[/b] first time up, and secondly he will get some Cheltenham chase experience at the weekend. But we have five runners at Exeter today; here are my thoughts on them: [i]12:50, 2m5f Novice Hurdle[/i] [b]Curtain Razer[/b] Is an Old Vic half-brother to four winners, notably 2008 Irish Grand National winner Hear The Echo. Has shown plenty of promise himself already, landing two from two for Richard Barber, winning at Ottery St Mary and Buckfastleigh. As his pedigree would suggest,...

I have more new recruits in the yard than ever before this year - well over 50 if you factor in the arrivals from Graham Wylie - so it is still a case of 'getting to know you' with a lot of them. As such, I could give you any number of Ten To Follow lists and miss out some high fliers. In fact, I hope as many as possible surprise me as much as the likes of Silviniaco Conti did last year. But two novice hurdlers that I know I would suggest following are Polisky and Jump City. And I clearly rate Sam Winner as a 2m novice chaser, and in that department look out for Escort'men, too. At 2m+ on the chase front, the aforementioned Silviniaco Conti is an obvious horse to keep on side, as is Al Ferof. He is on target for Bangor on November 9, where I gather Peddlers Cross is an intended...