Who To Follow At Cheltenham On Friday

The Class 3 Maiden Hurdle over two miles sees some young geldings go to post and Nicky Henderson's only runner of the day at Prestbury Park looks a interesting runner.

Fred makes his stable debut for the yard coming over from France for the new season and he looks a highly credible recruit with three seconds in a row to end his campaign last season.

He has raced predominantly on soft to a good standard and could be even better with good in the description and in the colours of Isaac Souede and Simon Munir he is worth watching on Friday.

Nigel Twiston-Davies is set for a big season with him starting to unleash some of his big guns for the season and he has two nice runners at Cheltenham on Friday.

One of the leading Novice Hurdlers last season Al Dancer is now going Novice Chasing and this four runner field last season was a superstar over flights winning four of his five races.

His best performances came at Cheltenham in a Class 3 Handicap Hurdle and at Ascot in the Grade Three Betfair Hurdle at Ascot but he then flopped in the Supreme Novices Hurdle at the festival which saw the end of his season.

Now stepping into unknown territory over fences he looks the most likely in this field to handle it the best but it looks a high class contest and he will need to be at his best from the start.

The other horse we like the look of for trainer NTD is Belmount and this 10 year old gelding after a break went to Warwick in a three mile event and ran to a decent standard finishing third of eight behind some smart runners with second that day since running another big race.

He is two pounds lower than that run and seems to be getting back down to a mark he cane in off and could be a nice each way price.

Dual Grand National winning rider Davy Russell comes across the pond to Cheltenham on Friday for a host of good rides and we think he is worth following especially on these two horses.

The first comes in the first race of the day when he sits on board Doctor Duffy fro trainer Charles Byrnes and the six year old gelding has raced nicely recently finishing a good second at Listowel in tricky ground before last time out getting off the mark for the season at Navan.

What seemed to be the making of this horse was the step up in trip he made last time going up to 2 miles 6f and revelling in the extra distance and going over a similar distance on Friday with perfect conditions should see him go well.

The other comes in the novice chase Dinons is no stranger to winning running frequently over last season which saw him pick up seven victories including romping to victory over course and distance at this meeting last year over hurdles.

Now novice chasing he has took to it very well winning three of his five contests so far on both good and heavy ground and knowing he stays this trip should see him in the frame.