IT’S some weekend, this weekend. Again. These weekends in the lead up to Christmas – where you go from the Paddy Power Gold Cup (last week) to the Betfair Chase (this week) to the Ladbroke Trophy (next week) and the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle (also next week) and the Drinmore Chase (see above), through the John Durkan Chase and the Hilly Way Chase and the Tingle Creek Chase, all the way through Cheltenham’s December meeting to the Long Walk Hurdle – they’re the best weekends of the year.

There may be only five runners in the Betfair Chase this afternoon, but it’s still one of those races that you don’t want to miss. It will be fascinating to see how it develops as a contest. Last year’s winner Lostintranslation, taking the first step this season on the road that will bring him back to the Cheltenham Gold Cup, in which he finished third last year, versus the 2018 and 2017 winner Bristol De Mai, second last year, who loves it at Haydock, especially when it is deep, as it will be today, versus the King George winner Clan Des Obeaux, who was only fourth in this race in 2018, but who is a different horse now, a dual King George winner.