Excellent New Years Day card at Cheltenham

Although 2 jumps meetings have had to be abandoned, the New Year starts well for N.H. fans with an excellent card at Cheltenham and some good racing at Exeter and Fakenham, while in Ireland they go over the jumps at Fairyhouse and Tramore. Main feature at Cheltenham is the Grade Two Dipper Novices Chase over 2 miles 5 furlongs at 15.00 CET. This has a very strong field with 13 runners, several of them with Festival ambitions. Reve de Sivola (Nick Williams/ Daryl Jacob), a recent CD winner, is one of them as are Mr. Thriller (David Pipe/ Tom Scudamore) - who fell when still going well last time- Master of the Hall (Nicky Henderson/ Barry Geraghty) and the rather unreliable Medermit (Alan King/ Robert Thornton). However our choice is the lightly-weighted Sway (Jonjo O´Neill/ Tony McCoy), who is moving up in grade but seems to have plenty of improvement in him.

The valuable handicap chase over the same trip at 15.35 is another very open affair, with question marks hanging over the main contenders, such as Tartak (Tom George/ Paddy Brennan), arguably better on a flat course, or Caroles Legacy (Henderson/ Geraghty), arguably better over hurdles. Can´t Buy Time (O´Neill/ McCoy) won this last yar but has run badly ever since, and we therefore choose two outsiders - German-bred Moon over Miami (Charlie Mann/ Paul Moloney), who needs to come with a very late run, and oldtimer Mister McGoldrick (Sue Smith/ Dominic Elsworth), who runs his best races here.

The hurdle race over 2 1/2 miles at 13.55 is virtually a rerun of the Relkeel Hurdle run 3 weeks ago over the same CD, in which Karabak (King/ McCoy) defeated Any Given Day (Donald McCain/ Jason Maguire) and Celestial Halo (Paul Nicolls/ Harry Skelton); at the revised weights there should be little between the three of them.

The listed bumper for 4yos at 16.45 is probably the best race of its kind so far this season in the U.K. Keys (Roger Charlton/ Brennan) has a good flat pedigree and has won both his starts in promising style. He is the likely favourite here but is meeting much stronger opposition now and may not be suited by this much stiffer track, but if he wins well, he will be an obvious candidate for the Champion Bumper.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Bobs Worth - Astracad - Habbie Simpson
2. Race: Karabak - Any Given Day - Oscar Whisky
3. Race: Buffalo Bob - Qhilimar - Maljimar
4. Race: Reve De Sivola - Medermit - Mr Thriller
5. Race: Carole`S Legacy - Tartak - Taranis
6. Race: Kilcrea Kim - Viking Blond - Chartreux
7. Race: Keys - Trozulon - Cousin Khee