Sunday 16th November 2014

Caid Bu Berlais won the Paddy Power Gold Cup under a great ride from Sam Twiston Davies, it was a big day for Sam and champion trainer Paul Nicholls who also won the Murphy Group chase with Sam Winner.

For some crazy reason Sam has come in for some criticism of late about his riding ability and a few pundits saying his job wouldn’t last with Mr Nicholls. Yesterday’s efforts in the saddle proved what people who know Sam were already aware of, he's a quality jockey, top guy and will be the future champion jockey.

Present View ran a cracker of a race for Jamie Snowden, I’ve not seen a better round of jumping for some time, the horse was electric at his fences. Jumping two out he looked the winner but the heavy ground just found him out towards the finish, 3^rd place was still an excellent effort.

Present View will pick up a big race when seen on a better surface, something like the Topham Chase at Aintree could be ideal.

The ground at Cheltenham today is going to be very hard work, it’s going to ride deep, sticky and take a lot of getting, finding winners will not be easy.

Emerging Talent in the 1:35 has proven race fitness on his side and also won on soft ground in Ireland, the form of his 2^nd place behind Shelford has worked out very well, he looks sure to give a good account.

Slightly annoying we don’t have proper EW terms in the 2:40 as Module looks overpriced at 7-1. The Tom George yard couldn’t be in better form whilst Module's efforts on heavy going reads 111. The drop back in trip looks ideal and the Champion Chase 3^rd can out run his odds. I'm not sure if can win this but would have been a nice EW bet if we had 3 places been paid.

The Greatwood Hurdle is the feature race of the afternoon it’s a good renewal and looks wide open, no surprise if we had a big priced winner.

My two against the field would be Regal Encore 10-1 EW who must be better than shown so far and Baradari 12-1 EW who should be much fitter for an opener the other week and goes on heavy.