Top Notch will prove best of bunch again

Henderson already looking at some big dates for six-year-old charge

TOP NOTCH

promises to take all the beating in the rearranged Peterborough Chase at Taunton.

The Nicky Henderson-trained sixyear-old has really taken well to fences and, if anything, appears to be on the up.

He actually reappeared over hurdles at Aintree, a run which put him nicely right for the Christy 1965 Chase at Ascot, where he impressed in pretty much everything he did in slamming Double Shuffle by eight lengths.

Second to Yorkhill at the Cheltenham Festival last season, a return trip for the Ryanair Chase is firmly on the cards but he could even pop up in the King George on Boxing Day should something happen to stablemate Bristol De Mai.

made a successful debut for the in-form Philip Kirby team at Bangor and can continue gaining experience with another win in the Parklands Club Novices’ Chase at Newcastle.

is a much better horse at Warwick than anywhere else and Henry Oliver’s seven-year-old can register her fourth success there in the M-TEC Consulting Group Mares’ Novices’ Chase.

LADY BUTTONS SPARKLING RIVER SELECTIONS: NEWCASTLE:

12.10 Clovelly, 12.40 Lady Buttons, 1.15 Call Me, 1.45 Manwell, 2.20 Morning With Ivan, 2.55 Baileys Concerto, 3.25 Vintage Glen.

12.00 Parthenius, 12.30 Kings Ryde, 1.05 Never Learn, 1.35 New Millennium, 2.10 The Welsh Paddies, 2.45 TOP NOTCH (NAP), 3.15 Coeur Tantre, 3.50 Midnight Magic.

TAUNTON: WARWICK:

12.20 Tamayef, 12.50 First Assignment, 1.25 Sparkling River, 1.55 Horatio Hornblower, 2.30 Don’t Act Up, 3.05 Jarlath, 3.35 Thibault.

DOUBLE: Top Sparkling River Notch and

Nicky Henderson: looking ahead.