Crackers

JACOBS’ Five-time Naps Table champ Moorestyle’s best bets…

AS WE enter 2019 all heads are turned to the Cheltenham Festival, so I thought I would offer you my ante-post each-way yankee for the greatest national hunt show on earth.

Ultima Handicap Chase: BEWARE THE BEAR (20-1)

A really fragile staying chaser, he has only run seven times since being sent off the 9-2 second favourite for the 2017 National Hunt Chase.

But Nicky Henderson’s charge is also massively talented as he showed when powering through the mud to land the Eider Chase that same year after being tailed off midway around that four-mile slog.

A staying on fourth in last year’s renewal, the nine-year-old bounced back to form with an easy success at Cheltenham last time out when the first-time blinkers worked an absolute treat. Ballymore Novice Hurdle: CHAMPAGNE PLATINUM (16-1)

I was lucky enough to be at Newbury when this giant son of Stowaway dismantled his 15 rivals in an above average introductory hurdle.

Jumping fluently over the first six hurdles, once Barry Geraghty let out a length of rein, the grey fairly bolted clear from a quarter of a mile out.

His breeding suggests three miles will ultimately be his trip.

But his high cruising speed makes him a natural for this extended two-anda-half mile event on the Wednesday. Stayers Hurdle: BLACK OP (16-1) A winner on two of his five starts as a novice hurdler last year including a second to Samcro in the Ballymore Hurdle, this horse simply hasn’t taken to fences this season.

Set to return to hurdles later this month, if he can improve another seven to

10lbs, he could be huge each-way value. Foxhunters Chase: SHANTOU FLYER

(7-1)

A winner of five of his 25 starts over fences and with Cheltenham form figures of F14222, Richard Hobson’s charge is an above average recruit to the hunter chase sector.

He will make his debut in that sphere at Ludlow on Thursday and if he wins, his current ante-post odds of 7-1 will be a distant memory.