I’m a massive Fantastikas fan
FANTASTIKAS is taken to get his season off to a winning start in the Future Stars Chase at Sandown.
Trained by Nigel Twiston- Davies, the seven- year- old mixed it with some of the best novice chasers around last season.
While his campaign did end on a bit of a downer with defeats at the Cheltenham Festival in the Ultima and in the Scottish Grand National up at Ayr, he was certainly not disgraced in the first of those and was probably feeling the effects of a busy season in the latter.
Second in a Grade Two at Doncaster last December to Paul Nicholls’ Threeunderthrufive, he went on to be a respectable third to subsequent Brown Advisory winner L’Homme Presse at Cheltenham in January.
Stepped back up to almost three miles at Lingfield’s Winter Million meeting, he handled testing ground with aplomb in beating the talented Queenohearts by a short head.
Well fancied for the Ultima at 8- 1, Fantastikas finished seventh on decent ground and could probably have done with the race being a day later, but he was in front of Grand National winner Noble Yeats and could be a classy handicapper this season.
Jamie Snowden can do little wrong at present and he sends Git Maker over fences for the first time in the Celebration Of Autumn Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase.
He cost over £ 100,000 having won an Irish point- topoint but showed plenty of promise over hurdles last year when he was only surely buying time.
Wins at Chepstow, Carlisle and Newcastle showed he possesses plenty of ability, with his sole defeat coming at Sandown on his handicap debut.
He jumped out to his right on more than one occasion when last seen in action at Newcastle in April, so running on a right- handed track should help him.
Matterhorn is an interesting French recruit for Nicholls in the Falling Leaves Maiden Hurdle.
On his sole run for Gabriel Leenders he finished third in a Listed event that was won by Paradiso, who is now a stallion, with Willie Mullins’
Gaelic Warrior back in sixth.
Lostintranslation showed signs last season that he is still a very capable chaser on his day, if not quite at the level he once was.
His best effort came first time out when winning the Grade Two 1965 Chase at Ascot and he will not need to run to anywhere near that level to win the Sandown Park Veterans’ Handicap Chase.
He failed to stay, perhaps unsurprisingly in the Grand National, but ran well enough before that when eighth in the Ultima.
Setback
Jonjo O’Neill sends Soaring Glory over fences for the first time at Ffos Las in the Follow @ Starsports_ bet On Twitter Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase.
He won a big pot at Ascot first time out last season off top- weight so clearly goes well fresh and went on to run respectable races in the Christmas Hurdle and Betfair Hurdle.
A setback ruled him out of Cheltenham and this looks the ideal time to go chasing, but it will not be easy giving plenty of weight to two useful rivals.