THIS weekend may feel like the calm before the Cheltenham storm for some but certainly not Stuart Crawford, who will need eyes in all directions with runners at Kelso, Doncaster and Navan today, and Leopardstown tomorrow.

Brucio, one of the most taking winners of the 2024 Dublin Racing Festival in the Paddy Mullins Mares Handicap Hurdle, is a fascinating contender in the Grade 2 bet365 Premier Novices’ Hurdle (2.17) at Kelso for Simon Munir and Isaac Souede.

Grade 1 winner Jango Baie sets a solid standard but the Crawford-trained mare is clearly on the up.

“She ran better than we could have hoped for at Leopardstown, and maybe things panned out to suit her,” Crawford told The Irish Field.

“She’s lightly raced and hopefully there’s still a bit more improvement to come. Right from the start, she’s shown us a bit. She’s got a bit of a quirky temperament and maybe it’s just taken a couple of runs for the penny to drop.”

It looks an excellent piece of placing from the Crawford team to have two runners in the listed mares’ novice hurdle (3.10) at Doncaster given the top four in the betting (as of yesterday) hold ratings of just 125, 124, 117 and 114.

Blacktype aim

Ottizzini, a last-time-out winner at Musselburgh rated 124 in Britain, looks a big player, while Spice Diva has a fair deal to find but has been in fine form.

Crawford said: “Ottizzini was the outsider of the field last time and won well. I’d be hopeful for a big run; it looks the right sort of race. It’d be lovely to get a bit of blacktype with Spice Diva too.”

Crawford is also looking forward to running Now Where Or When in the Listed QuinnBet Handicap Chase (4.00) at Leopardstown tomorrow. The useful chaser posted a big effort around this time last year when third in the Bobbyjo Chase but has run just once this term.

“He’s been ready to go a couple of times and just had small setbacks - nothing major,” said Crawford.

“He’s better on dry ground anyway so we’ll look forward to the coming months. This can get him started and then we can think about maybe Fairyhouse, Aintree, Punchestown and Ayr.”