Sharp Novices' Hurdle Tips: Keatley's Raider Looks Cut Above

The main race on Cheltenham's Friday card is perhaps not the tastiest betting contest, the Sharp Novices' Hurdle. A host of high class novice hurdlers who could yet evolve into Supreme contenders at the Cheltenham Festival will joust for glory at Prestbury Park and Billy Grimshaw has nailed his colours to the mast...

Normally i would shy away from an odds-on shot this early in the season at Cheltenham, with plenty gunning for a win at the most famous Jumps course around and the thrill that brings with it, however I do think receiving weight all round the mare GALE MAHLER will be a very tough nut to crack. She is on a sensational run of six wins following a fourth placed finish on debut and with the mare having a break since her latest and best win to date in July at Galway, she is the rightful favourite. 

Henry Brooke will take the ride and what we've seen on Gale Mahler's long winning run, we have seen that she is tremendously tactically versatile.  This could be a big help in a race where plenty will want to be prominent, and after her ten length romp at Galway when she was prominent, took a pull and then blitzed away from her rivals I wouldn't be surprised to see similar tactics utilised in here.

This is no penalty kick of a race as four of the seven won last time out, including the one I expect to be the leader Strong Foundations for Sam Drinkwater. He is an honest type and seems to relish a battle on the limited viewing we've seen of him over hurdles, but that one win over obstacles is a long way off the standard the favourite brings in here. More of a threat could be the Ditcheat runner with Harry Cobden on board Brave Knight, who is jousting for second favouritism at the time of writing.

He also won last time out and likes to be prominent on evidence of both his flat career and his successful start to life over hurdles - albeit in weak summer jumps races for Nicholls. He is three from three over obstacles and since joining Nicholls and won't have the excuse plenty of his have had that they are not race fit in here, however he made hard work of things at 2/5 last time out to win by just a neck and a repeat of that level won't be enough. He and the second did pull well clear that day, but it does not look a strong race bar those two at the time of writing.

I'd make the biggest danger to the favourite the Skelton runner who is priced similarly to Brave Knight as I pen this piece Valgrand. He was a decent bumper horse despite never managing to win one and shed his maiden tag with ease on hurdles debut, albeit at odds-on. He has since had another easy win at 1/4 but he did that with minimal fuss and it'll have done the confidence no harm, so with that impressive placed bumper form in his locker and the fact he is race fit, he could be the one who makes Gale Mahler worry the most.

Although he won his only hurdles start for Lucinda Russell after a decent flat career with Ger Lyons, Imaginarium has already moved to Olly Murphy's and makes his stable debut in this contest. While his win for Lucinda was nice enough, he'd need to be a lot better to feature here today and one suspects he will be a project horse for his new handler as the season develops. Arguably the most interesting contender here is Ian Williams' Dancing In Paris, the outsider who is in the middle of a very good flat campaign which has seen him notch three Southwell successes. Winning this race on hurdles debut would be a real turn up for the books and I couldn't back him having never seen him jump an obstacle in a field this talented, but a solid placed run would whet the appetite for what could be to come for the team.