Cheltenham Festival trials on Saturday will be the final audition for many hopefuls ahead of the Festival in March.
Bristol de Mai headlines the meet and is the 11/8 favourite for the Cotswold Chase, the grey will be looking to improve on a disappointing showing in the King George on Boxing Day at Kempton Park.
De Mai has yet to win in two starts at Cheltenham, the seven year old is one of 10 entries in the BetBright Trial Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham on Saturday, over an extended three miles and a furlong course.
Another horse looking to bounce back is 2015 Gold Cup winner Coneygree, who has failed to complete in two outings this season, in the Charlie Hall and Ladbrokes Trophy
Harry Fry’s American is also looking for a strong performance, as he was also disappointing in the Ladbrokes Trophy, having been favourite.
Kim Bailey is keen to see how The Last Samuri gets on outside handicap company, while Tea For Two could run for the in-form Nick Williams.
Trainer Tom George has entered Singlefarmpayment rather than King George runner-up Double Shuffle.
Colin Tizzard has Theatre Guide, who has run in the race twice before, entered and Fergal O’Brien may send Cheltenham specialist Perfect Candidate back to favourite track
While much of Britain may be struggling with heavy rain, Cheltenham looks like escaping the worst of the elements in the run up to Saturday’s key trials card.
On Wednesday, the track’s clerk of the course Simon Claisse said: “This morning I changed the ground to good to soft, soft in places from soft on the basis of two dry days since Sunday. It is now raining and will have reverted to soft by teatime.”
Many of the feature Saturday races since the turn of the year have been run on very soft or even heavy ground but Claisse does not expect the new course to present such testing conditions as the rails have been moved since the last meeting on January 1st to provide fresh ground.
