Grade One Barberstown Castle Novice Chase Guide 2022

Ran poorly in the Arkle at Cheltenham, when never travelling or jumping with any fluency. Prior to that, he'd been in good form, so perhaps that's a run best ignored.

He's a classy horse but he does often find one or two too good, but he looks sure to run a solid race once again at a track he ran well at on chasing debut earlier this season.

Ran an absolute cracker when supplemented for the Arkle at Cheltenham, only finding one too good. He is a hard horse to catch right though, as he can jump excellently, and on the contrary, quite poorly.

If he can build on his Arkle second, he surely has a big chance, with some of today's rivals having questions to answer. Good chance.

The only mare in this field, now with Henry De Bromhead. She is a long way off the standard on ratings here, and will need to improve at least 20lbs to have any sort of say in the finish.

She could capitalise on some of her rivals though, as there are plenty of question marks over several in here. Long way off the class standard - she'll need a whole lot of luck to win this.

Gentleman De Mee is a rapidly improving novice, taking the G1 Novice Chase at Aintree in good style, from Edwardstone in second.

He had the benefit of missing Cheltenham and the Arkle though, whereas the runner up didn't - so this race will be key for him going forward - is he as good as he showed, or did he capitalise on a horse who's had a long, tough season?

Fascinating runner.

Saint Sam ran in the Arkle, well, a portion of it anyway. He was not good at the first or third fence, then was hampered by a faller, ultimately unseating his rider.

Prior to that, he ran a solid race when finishing third to Blue Lord and Riviere D'etel at Leopardstown when making a mistake as the race was developing.

He can throw in one or two bad jumps, but he's a high class horse with a massive engine. Hard to discount.

Haut En Couleurs travelled ominously well into the Arkle, before ultimately fading to finish 6th. He's clearly a horse with plenty of ability, but he's becoming a shade frustrating.

He will need to improve to have a chance of turning the form around with a few of these, and off the back of two disappointing runs, he's hard to recommend.

Unbeaten over fences until the Arkle, when finishing a distant third to Edwardstone with Gabynako in second. He made a few fiddly errors there though but nothing really serious.

He is a safe enough jumper with a good technique and lots of class, he could well get back to winning ways today in perhaps calmer waters.