DOUBLE HANDFUL

ONE of the worst things about returning to work after the Christmas break is having to utter the words, “not bad thanks, how was yours”? a hundred times.

The absolute worst thing is going back to the same old facade of pretending to work again.

The good news is that we don’t have long to wait for the first Grade 1 of the year — the Tolworth Hurdle at Sandown.

This is an underrated contest that rarely fails to produce future stars of the game.

The last three winners of this race alone (Yorkhill, Finian’s Oscar and Summerville Boy) have all gone on to win at the Cheltenham Festival. In fact the first two home in last year’s Supreme Hurdle were also the first two in the Tolworth — Summerville Boy and Kalashnikov.

Nicky Henderson has won four of the last eight renewals and will be hoping for his sixth winner in total with the highly regarded Rathhill.

The six-year-old hardly broke sweat when putting 19 rivals to the sword at Newbury last month, although this will be a much tougher test.

There are only six declared today but it’s significant that Henderson could easily have ran some of his other top prospects in Birchdale and Epatante. In pulling them out he seems to be clearing the path of least resistance for Rathhill to have a firm tilt.

The favourite should attract a good deal of sustained support in the betting ring right up until the off.

But the one I fancy to upset the Henderson apple cart is GAMBLING WISDOM

ELIXIR DE NUTZ.

Colin Tizzard’s fiveyear-old looked impressive winning his last two outings at Cheltenham, one of which was a Grade 2.

The form was franked on New Year’s Day with runner-up Jarveys Plate (who got 10lb from Elixir De Nutz), winning the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle. Tizzard won this race with Finian’s Oscar a couple of years ago and in Elixir De Nutz could have another horse capable of sampling Festival success.