Nigel Twiston-Davies's Bristol De Mai is back again for another season and will start his campaign off in the Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby before he heads to Haydock to have a go at winning his third consecutive Grade One Betfair Chase.
The trainer is looking forward to another big season from his stable star and is hopeful the Isaac Souede and Simon Munir owned grey can repeat what he did back in 2017 by winning the Charlie Hall and then successfully landing the Betfair Chase.
Bristol De Mai as usual had a great start to the season last year but in the middle part was below par his best, however he salvaged his season with a superb run in the Cheltenham Gold Cup finishing a narrow third behind winner Al Boum Photo.
His last run of the season was again below par not running well in the Betway Bowl at the Grand National meeting and his trainer this season is hoping he can stay at his best consistently throughout the season.
(Credit At The Races) Twiston-Davies said: “Bristol De Mai is in good shape. He will go for the Charlie Hall, then the Betfair Chase. He has made the race his own for the past two seasons.
“He has been well over the summer and is showing as much enthusiasm as ever. Everything is all good with him.”
Also in the Naunton handlers ammunition for the season is last year's Betfair hurdle winner Al Dancer who looks to be going novice chasing and will start his season off at Sunday at Newton Abbot.
The six year old won his first four races over hurdles last season before losing his unbeaten record at the Cheltenham festival in the Supreme Novices Hurdle but is set for another big season over the bigger obstacles.
Twiston-Davies said: “He is entered at Newton Abbot in an extended two-mile novice chase and the plan is to go there.
“We decided with the owners that he would go chasing this season rather than stay over hurdles. He seems fine and hopefully he can do well over fences.”
Chepstow on Saturday looks appealing for the consistent Wholestone, who made a winning debut over fences a at Perth last month.
Twiston-Davies added: “Hopefully Wholestone will run at Chepstow, but we have to see who is running and why. I was really pleased with how he jumped at Perth, even though he only had one rival to beat.”