Champions Day at Ascot comes too late in the season for me and it might do for some of the horses as well so the card is full of potential pitfalls and we won't go there.
It is still backs against the wall here as I steadfastly refuse to give way having drawn a line at the level of profit I dropped to a few weeks ago so it is with great care that I place my last pound. And it will be a pound. This prudent strategy isn't exciting or lucrative but it might have saved me a few big losers, although the 4/1 we landed with the nap last week was a gift of an SP.
So, there are three jump meetings tomorrow and we start by ignoring the handicaps. The New One soldiers on in the Welsh Champion Hurdle but is asked to give away weight. We might back him to do that if we're still in business by 4.25.
West Approach is the most eye-catching debutant chaser so far this season in the 3.20 at Ffos Las but at 5/4, there is some fair competition up against him. I'd expect him to win that and then possibly run up a sequence as compensation for some good runs but only one win in novice hurdles last season but, again, he'll be one to look for if there is earlier success to build on.
The Professor's been on the wire already and goes for Ebony's Encore in the first at Market Rasen. Best of luck, Prof. And I'm at Rasen, too, for Not That Fuisse (nap 1.40), after which we can press on with Demon d'Aunou (2.15), so there's a treble paying more than 10/1. Start the car, we're off to Rasen.
And at Stratford, they have kindly kept the novice hurdles to the back end of the card so that if we still want one more, we can have Mr. One More in the 5.15 by which time it is to be hoped we've gathered in some ammunition to take into next week.
Play nicely.