Nicholls in sensational form

Former champion trainer Paul Nicholls has enjoyed a tremendous couple of days at Chepstow with his 15 runners producing form figures of 141121212115F14. McFabulous was a most impressive winner of the Grade 2 Persian War Novices' Hurdle with a three lengths win and is now all set to go down the stayers' hurdle route. The Grade 2 Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury (27th November) is expected to be his next target.

Team Ditcheat have had a huge amount of success with their French recruits and Hell Red looked a class act in the opening juvenile hurdle on Saturday. The grey gelded son of Martaline had finished runner-up on his jumping bow for Guillaume Macaire in March and he put that experience to good use on his British debut. Jumping brilliantly throughout, he bounded clear after the third last to win hard held by a dozen lengths. The Grade 2 juvenile hurdle at Cheltenham's November meeting (14th) will almost certainly figure on his programme next time and it will take a smart one to beat him. A return to Chepstow over Christmas for the Grade 1 Finale Hurdle (27th December) could also be on his agenda. Featured in the French Revolution section of One Jump Ahead, he is an exciting prospect for the remainder of this season and beyond.

In total there were 9 winners in the Talking Trainers section of OJA over the two days at the Welsh track. I was delighted to see Tea Clipper (7/2) make it four wins from five starts over timber for Tom Lacey in the Silver Trophy. The Herefordshire handler has his team in splendid form and the lightly raced five year old ran on strongly to beat Flash The Steel by two and a quarter lengths off a mark of 134. It will be interesting to see where he heads next. 

The two selections in the Cesarewitch ran creditably in fifth and ninth but weren't quite good enough on the day. The Autumn Update has been successful though with another winner on Friday provided by Showalong (15/8) in the five furlongs novice stakes at York.