Three Horses Worth Noting This Week

The seven year old gelding had four runs last season winning three of them and only getting beat in a thriller at the Cheltenham festival in the Ballymore Novices Hurdle.

Champ started his season at Newbury in a 15 runner Class 2 Handicap Hurdle where he looked a class above the field that included some smart runners.

He went back to Newbury for his first taste of Grade One company and stayed on the best to take the Challow Novices Hurdle and be primed for a crack at the Ballymore at the festival.

He could only manage a narrow second to Irish raider City Island who stayed on better up the hill to take the spoils but it was still a highly credible run from Henderson's horses.

He finished off his season in superb style by picking up his second Grade One over hurdles in the Doom Bar Sefton Novices Hurdle at the Grand National meeting.

Champ was bought to be a chaser over three miles and on his debut over fences he was very impressive again again Newbury seeing off a decent field of runners showing plenty of temperament over the bigger obstacles.

He heads back to that track on Friday in the Berkshire Novices Chase and looks seriously the one to beat with him going to improve for his first run of the season.

Next up is Amy Murphy's stable star Kalashnikov with the six year old racing for the second time this season after finishing a good second on his seasonal bow at Aintree behind Forest Bihan.

Many fences were taken out of the race that day which it made it more of a bumper contest but it told us that the gelding needed the run and will be much better for it.

Kalashnikov was smart hurdler finishing second in a photo finish at the Cheltenham festival to Summerville Boy in the Supreme Novices Hurdle.

Last season he took to the bigger obstacles and seemed to be decent over fences aswell getting the grips of things late on in the season to land the Grade One Manifesto Chase at the Grand National meeting.

Now being fitter and stronger for his opening run this looks an easier target dropping back to a Class 2 Handicap.

The final runner to keep an eye on this week is the superstar Paisley Park for Emma Lavelle who last season was unbeaten in all five of his starts.

He landed the first Grade One of his career and the first back type win for the yard at Ascot in December when winning the JLT Hurdle.

From there he went for a prep run before the Cheltenham festival, winning the Grade Two Cleeve Hurdle over course and distance and then brought the house down in March when landing the big winner of the week for punters in the Grade One Stayers Hurdle.

This horse was one of the stories of the season last term and if reappearing like he was in his last campaign he could have another special season.