Saturday 16th January 2016

Tough racing this afternoon and not a great deal catches the eye, however the 3:00 at Warwick is interesting.

I would be against Thomas Hobson. Despite making a fair start to his hurdle career the horse looks anything but a natural whilst I have a feeling he’ll find today’s ground very hard work.

I would much prefer to be with the other Willie Mullins runner Open Eagle, however the one they both have to beat could be Born Survivor trained by Dan Skelton.

Born Survivor was a big money purchase at £220,000 and made a good start to his hurdle career when winning nicely at Warwick. The horse has plenty of size and looks a nice prospect. He’ll have to be decent to win this on just his 2nd hurdle start but he’s held in high regard and could be anything.

The Betfred Classic Chase will be gruelling and take an awful lot of getting, stamina will win the day. For that reason I’ve risked a few quid EW on Foxbridge at 12-1.

Foxbridge finished 5^th in the Midlands Grand National over 4miles, that’s half a mile further than today’s test. There looks to be a lot front runners in the race and it’s hoped they might battle for the lead and set the race up for a finisher. Foxbridge should be staying on when others have cried enough and looks to have a fair EW chance at decent odds.