Cheltenham: three top novices races

today´s card begins with 3 races for novices, all highly competitive. The National Hunt chase over 4 miles for amateur riders at 14.30 CET is generally regarded as the weakest race of the meeting, but it can still provide an exciting finish and it usually pays here to stick to the best jockeys. In which case we have to start with Nina Carberry, who showed again yesterday that she is as good as the top pros. Here she rides Parsons Pistol for Irish trainer Noel Meade, who also had a winner yesterday. so this one is automatically on the short list, together with Can´t Buy Time (Jonjo O´Neill/ John Thomas McNamara) and Kornati Kid (Philip Hobbs/ Robbie McNamara). Th Ballymore Novice Hurdle over 2 miles 5 furlongs at 15.05 is a red-hot race, featuring 10 last-time-out winners, including the unbeaten Diamond Harry (Nick Williams/ Timmy Murphy) and Mad Max (Nicky Hemderson/ Barry Geraghty); Mad Max beat Karabak (Alan King/ Tony McCoy) earlier in the seasn, but the latter has impres sed since and could be another winner in the colours of JP McManus. Mikhael d´Haguenet (Willie Mullins/ Ruby Walsh) is the best of the 5 Irish runners, but possibly needs softer ground. In the RSA novice chase over 3 miles at 15.40, Mullins and Walsh also the best Irish runner with Cooldine, but the British defence looks very strong and is headed by Carruthers (Mark Bradstock/ Mattie Batchelor), Gone to Lunch (Jeremy Scott/ TonyMcCoy), Massimis Maguire (Philip Hobbs/ Richard Johnson) and What a Friend (Paul Nicholls/ Sam Thomas), part-owned by Man. U. manager Alex Ferguson. As Walsh had the choice between that one and Cooldine, it could be that the Irish runner will start favourite, but there are several possible winners.