“IF you wanted to get him winning King Georges when he’s nine and 10 you would want to be minding him and not overdoing him now. I know the guys would like to go to Cheltenham but my target was always next year’s King George.” - Paul Nicholls after Bravemansgame took the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase 12 months ago.

That the Ditcheat handler has been thinking about winning not one but multiple King Georges with the seven-year-old before he completed that course-and-distance win should strike fear into the connections of his opponents today.

Nicholls farms this race. He has won it a dozen times, so it’s pretty certain he knows the type of horse that can prosper in this sort of test. That said, you don’t need a unique intuition to see that with Bravemansgame, who is a smooth-jumping, high-cruising-speed chaser. He showed those traits in spades on his return in the Charlie Hall Chase.

You could say the same for L’Homme Presse, though he did blunder badly on one occasion on his return in the Rehearsal Chase, before impressing in the manner of his ability to travel and jump smoothly thereafter. His participation here adds strength to the race, as he is the second favourite for the Gold Cup and after a relentlessly progressive novice chase season, he stepped forward again at Newcastle.

He probably took a bigger step forward than Bravemansgame in fact, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if both of them did so again today, given their low mileage. Softer ground would possibly help L’Homme Presse more, given connections were keen for that condition to run here after the horse won at Newcastle.

Second coming

And what for Envoi Allen? Once hyped as the second coming, he’s had a checkered career that began as soon as he left Gordon Elliott’s yard. That is no slight on his trainer Henry de Bromhead, it just seems the way things have fallen though it is interesting, considering how convinced Elliott was that this horse was a future Gold Cup type, that this will be just his third ever start at three miles.

He pulled up lame at Punchestown for his first run over the trip and won the other, his latest start, in the Champion Chase at Down Royal, so he is thoroughly unexposed and the scenario that he could actually now live up to all the potential he showed as a younger horse isn’t a far-fetched one.

Nicholls runs two others, Hitman, a talented six-year-old representing Clan Des Obeaux’s owners, and previous winner Frodon. Hitman will need to prove his stamina while Frodon is 11 now and ran a little disappointingly at Haydock. That said, previous winners are always worth following in this contest, and he can be given a pass for his run here last season, when he was allowed to run too fast early.

The addition of the Long Walk Hurdle (12.45) to this card makes it one of the best days of the season, with four Grade 1s in all and a chance to see Constitution Hill strut his stuff again in the Christmas Hurdle.

The Long Walk is more intriguing, given Kempton is a track that places a bigger emphasis on speed rather than stamina, as opposed to the race’s home of Ascot. So you have the proven stayers like Champ and Paisley Park, who produced a thrilling finish to the Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury and then you have a couple of mercurial speedy types in Goshen and Not So Sleepy. Tactics will be key.

FOR all that ground conditions will likely contrast between Leopardstown and Limerick, it’s ludicrous that there are two Grade 1 novice chases on St Stephen’s day and just two and a half furlongs in difference between the races.

Gordon Elliott won’t be complaining as he will be odds-on to win each race, through the combined force of Fil Dor and Hollow Games in the Racing Post Novice (2.20) and the talented Gerri Colombe who should get the soft ground he needs in the Faugheen (2.40).

This feeds on to a theme of the season whereby Willie Mullins has been even slower than usual to unleash a portion of his stable stars. In the novice chase division, we’re yet to see Dysart Dynamo and Sir Gerhard, while El Fabiolo and Appreciate It have only got up and running in recent weeks, too close to be considered for Christmas. All of that quartet would have been likely contenders for the aforementioned Grade 1 contests had they been able to run sooner.

While holding back a little later than usual, Elliott has got early runs into most of his top chasers and it has him in a good position for what is an important sector of the trainers’ championship which for the first time in a few years, could see the Meath man competitive again.

He has held bigger leads than his current one over Mullins going into Christmas (approximately €160,000) but his change of tact to be more patient with running plans in the early stage of the season could change the flow of his match-up with the champion trainer.