13:25 Chepstow

TIP 1: ST JAMES’S FINEST - 1pt Win

Best odds of 2/1 at William Hill at the time of publishing.

Whilst clearly Order On Time will make up into a nice Novice Hurdler this season, I’m not sure that he is deserving to be odds-on for his Hurdles debut considering Paul Nicholls himself has admitted that some of his horses are needing the run, and some are not. Instead I’d much rather take a chance on ST JAMES’S FINEST for the Dan Skelton team, as there has been a lot of hype suggesting that he could be one of their better Novice Hurdlers this season.

This 5yo finished fourth on his Bumper debut at Chepstow last season behind a more precocious type in No Walkover, but that form has worked out quite nicely with the second and third both winning subsequently. The Horse just ahead of him that day was Bande Organisee, and he absolutely bolted up on his next start once given the necessary time to develop physically and mentally, and that is a very similar story to our selection.

Given 58 days between runs, ST JAMES’S FINEST returned to action at Windsor in January, where he
wasn’t exactly well fancied to do the business having been sent off a 12/1 shot. It was a very smart performance though for him to quicken up and then stay on strongly all the way to the line – and he picked up a big scalp when beating dual Listed winner Ti’mamzel by a length, giving the Mare 3lbs at the weights.

Dan Skelton has reported recently that this striking grey jumps particularly well at home, and as such I think he is worth chancing at the bigger price here – especially when you consider that there is a lot more substance behind his Bumper form compared to the favourite, who won a much weaker race by 10 lengths – and the horse he beat into second is an unfancied 25/1 shot for Division 2 of this Maiden Hurdle.