All signs point to success for Southfield Stone

Conditions have dried up just in time for SOUTHFIELD STONE in the Close Brothers Handicap Chase at Kempton.

Trained by Paul Nicholls, the eight-year-old certainly has more to offer over fences than we have had chance to see to date.

He must have good ground to be seen at his best, as he showed when beating the talented Angels Breath in the Dovecote

Novices’ Hurdle at this meeting two years ago.

Flat tracks definitely suit him best too, which was why, despite winning that Grade Two, Nicholls did not even send him to Cheltenham that year, instead waiting for Aintree where soft ground scuppered him.

As he did not win his first novice chase until February last season having had the misfortune of bumping into some smart recruits, he was still eligible for a novice in October, when he beat the subsequent Paddy Power Gold Cup winner Coole Cody.

He has been put in his place by Protektorat, although there was no disgrace in that considering he was giving him weight, and then bogged down in the Caspian Caviar Gold Cup.

That run though, along with his effort in Grade One company at Aintree, are the only times he has been out of the frame in 17 starts and his consistency must be admired.

It is not hard to make a case for him as he is trained by a master, has his ground, loves the track and arrives having won a jumpers’ bumper most recently, beating the smart Didtheyleaveuoutto.

Nicholls could also be on the mark with ATHOLL STREET in the Sky Bet Dovecote Novices’ Hurdle.

The six-year-old appears a chaser of the future, and the fact he is owned by

Trevor Hemmings suggests that is what he was bought for, but he has looked very good over the smaller obstacles too.

SELECTIONS KEMPTON: 1.15 Hometown Boy, 1.50 Ga Law, 2.25 Tritonic, 3.00 Atholl Street, 3.35 SOUTHFIELD STONE (NAP), 4.10 Captain Blackpearl, 4.45 Guardino. NEWCASTLE: 1.35 Wetlands, 2.10 Black Pirate, 2.45 Robin Des Theatre, 3.15 The Dutchman, 3.50 Hooligan, 4.25 Ascot De Bruyere, 5.00 Red Ochre. DOUBLE: Southfield Stone and Atholl Street.

Paul Nicholls.