Donn McClean

YOU’D better have your lunch early today so that you can have a good run at the day. Unbelievable. With nine races set for Cheltenham, you probably won’t have the breakfast dishes done before they go to post for the first race, and it will be dusk by the time they run the last.

Don’t be fooled by the television pictures. It’s always darker than that.

It’s great that they saved the cross-country chase, and it’s even better that they re-routed the Spectra Cyber Security Solutions Clarence House Chase from Ascot last Saturday. Pity they lost Ar Mad, but good that they managed to collect Special Tiara and Uxizandre and a sponsor along the way. It’s still a fascinating race, it’s still a true test for Un De Sceaux.

The BetBright Trial Cotswold Chase will also be a true test for Thistlecrack. He sets the standard, he is the most fashionable horse of the season, but he is not invincible, not today.

True, he looked monstrous in the King George, but his stable companion Cue Card almost certainly didn’t run his race there, as evidenced by the fact that the second, third and fourth finished within a short-head and a head of each other.

Also, the winning time was not impressive. Thistlecrack could probably have gone faster, Tom Scudamore had the luxury of being able to pop each of the three fences up Kempton’s home straight, but the fact remains that, if Might Bite had popped the final fence in similar fashion in the Feltham Chase, the novice would have gone significantly faster in the novices’ race than Thistlecrack went in the King George.

A couple of other factors. Thistlecrack’s jumping is admittedly more assured now than it was in November, he was dynamite at Kempton, but his least impressive jumping performance was on the only occasion that he has raced over fences at Cheltenham. The fences at Cheltenham, racing up and down hills, over ditches and turning, represent a fairly unique test.

There is also that strange anomaly with the Cotswold Chase: it is a race in which favourites have not historically done well. No favourite has won the race in the last decade. This is usually not a statistic to which to pay too much attention, but when it is zero for 10, you have to have a second look at it. Perhaps it is the nature of the race, perhaps it is the time of year, as trainers have one eye on March. There may be something in it.

Alan King may have one eye on March, but you can be sure that he has had both eyes on today for a while, and his Smad Place could represent the value against Thistlecrack at 6/1 or 13/2.

The grey horse was super in this race last year, he and Many Clouds had it between them from a long way out, but it was Smad Place who proved to be the stronger horse on the run-in.

He hasn’t run badly in two runs this term so far, he wasn’t beaten far at Aintree on his seasonal return in October, over two and a half miles, which is short of his best, and conceding weight to all his rivals. And he ran well for a long way in the Hennessy again under a big weight, getting to within 10 lengths of the winner, Native River, in the end.

You can be sure that this has been Smad Place’s target since the Hennessy, and the forecast rain will be in his favour. He could run a big race.

Many Clouds is obviously a danger again but, just as Colin Tizzard probably has one eye on March, Oliver Sherwood definitely has at least one eye on April, probably an eye and a half. Kylemore Lough could out-run big odds if plenty of rain falls, he ran better than his finishing position suggests in the December Gold Cup last time, but Smad Place is the bet.

SOUTHFIELD ROYALE

Up at Doncaster, Southfield Royale could be the answer to a highly competitive Sky Bet Chase.

Neil Mulholland’s horse hasn’t run since he finished seventh behind Zabana in the Grade 1 Growise Chase at the Punchestown Festival last April, but he was a talented and progressive novice chaser last season.

Impressive in winning a Grade 2 novices’ contest over today’s course and distance in December last season, he stepped forward from that to finish second to Tea For Two in the Grade 1 Feltham Chase at Kempton last Christmas.

He didn’t run badly in finishing fourth in the National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham in March, but the four miles just seemed to stretch him. He should be happier today back over three.

He goes well fresh, his record after a break of three months or more reads 112, and, given that he is one for one at the track, over this distance, his trainer has probably had this race in mind for him for a while.

A mark of 147 is fair for his handicap debut. He is only seven and he has raced just six times over fences, so he still has plenty of scope for progression as a staying chaser. He is by Presenting, but he has good form on soft ground, so he will not mind if the rains arrive.

RECOMMENDED

SMAD PLACE, 1 point win, 13/2 (generally)

SOUTHFIELD ROYALE, 1 point each-way, 8/1 (generally)