The ex-French gelding has thrived since getting up close home to collar Breedsbreeze in the rearranged Peterborough Chase at Newbury and he showed his well-being in a schooling session with jockey Paddy Brennan on Friday morning.

“I’m delighted with him. Last season it took him three runs to find his form. This year he has found his form after two runs and he has really woken up since Newbury,” said Gloucestershire-based George.

“He’s a lot sharper and alert about the whole thing. He’s come on a lot. Paddy schooled him over eight fences and he jumped really well and sharp. He’s getting the hang of things.”

Colin Tizzard has been getting plenty of schooling into Hey Big Spender this week after the gelding fell on his latest start in the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury.

“I put a line through his Hennessy run. I think this is his trip, I’ve been trying to make him stay further,” said the Dorset trainer.

“He’s got an awful lot of weight, but he’s a lovely horse and I’m looking forward to running him. His jumping hasn’t been improving on the track so we’ve schooled him every day this week. He jumps lovely at home, but needs to do the same when he’s racing. We need to get the wheels back on.”

Mister McGoldrick is officially a 14-year-old on New Year’s Day and marks the occasion by running at the track where he sprang a 66-1 shock success in the Racing Post Plate at the 2008 Festival. The veteran’s trainer Sue Smith reports him to be ready to run for the first time since he was successful at Huntingdon in November.

“He’s as ready as he can be after all the bad weather. It’s been the same for everybody I think,” said the Bingley handler. “The old lad has been in good form and there’s no reason why he can’t have another go. There are no other races for him anyway at this moment in time. Hopefully he’ll run a good race.”

Med faces Dipper stamina testPA NewsMedermit is one of the highest rated hurdlers to go fencing in recent years and takes in the Tigmi Travel Dipper Novices’ Chase at Cheltenham.
He won on his chasing debut at Aintree but suffered a setback when he refused at Huntingdon after setting the pace. However, he got back on track at Plumpton last time out, beating a decent field quite decisively in the end.

“The step up in trip could help him. He just looked flat out leaving the back straight at Plumpton the other day and he had done that in the past. Obviously we are experimenting a little bit stepping him up to two and a half miles but it’s a proper horse race as well,” said his trainer Alan King.
“He’s schooled this morning, we are happy with him so let’s see what happens. The faster they went the last day, the better he jumped.”
Colin Tizzard re-routed Hell’s Bay to Cheltenham after the Feltham Chase at Kempton was called off on Boxing Day. The eight-year-old was second behind Time For Rupert on this course in early November after which he was also runner-up to Finian’s Rainbow at Newbury five weeks ago.

“His second to Time For Rupert was a smashing run. We were going to run him in the Feltham but that was off so he comes here. He’s in lovely form and this should be his ideal trip. We’ll see how good he is,” said Tizzard.

Simarian has his first race since opening his account over fences at Cartmel in May and his trainer Evan Williams is looking forward to running him in handicaps after this test.
“He’s only had two runs over fences and hasn’t shaped too badly. His form was desperate last season over hurdles. He’s had a nice, long break and we ran him in a couple of chases to see if he could do the job and he did,” said Williams.

“He needs another run to be eligible to run in handicaps. He’s improved to look at for his break and might be a horse that wins a nice race for us in the spring somewhere. He’ll probably come on a lot for the run, but it will be ideal for us ahead of him running in handicaps.”