Fontwell and Lingfield

Two jumps meetings on very heavy ground in the south of England today, and the most interesting races are at Fontwell. It is rather surprising to find Paul Nicholls targeting this meeting, but he has 4 runners here, all partnered by Ruby Walsh and all with chances. The fascinating one is certainly Tricky Trickster, who contests the opening novice hurdle over 3 miles 3 furlongs at 14.05 CET.

He is having his first race for the stable (previously Nigel Twiston-Davies) and has not been seen since winning a 4 mile chase at the Cheltenham festival last March. He has been entered for the Gold Cup (!) and although that is almost certainly beyond him, this race should be no problem. The other Nicholls/ Walsh runners -The Nightingale in the beginners chase at 15.35, Gullible Gordon in the novice chase at 15.45 and Aldertune in the handicap hurdle at 16.20- also have good chances, though none of them is actually bomb-proof.

Lingfield stages one of its rare N.H. meetings today and we expect Noun de la Thinte (Venetia Williams/ William Biddick) to complete a quick five-timer in the opening handicap chase for conditional jockeys at 14.25. This one has improved such a lot this winter that a total rise of 15 lbs in the weights for his 4 wins - all on soft/ heavy ground and 3 over today´s distance of 2 1/2 miles -should not stop him scoring again. The best betting race here is the 3 mile handicap chase at 16.45, in which almost all the 10 runners can be given a chance. Our tentative choice is heavy ground specialist Temoin (Richard Phillips/ Roddy Greene).