Friday 8th October:

#NAP – FIRST STREET (2.45 Chepstow) – Unsuccessful in his two bumper runs (finishing second both times) but remains unbeaten since switching to hurdles in his two starts. The first of those was over this extended 2m3f trip at Bangor when beating a subsequent winner (albeit not the strongest of races) but he stepped up markedly on that when winning comfortably by eight-and-a-half-lengths at Warwick recently over a longer trip, the drop back in distance won’t be an issue and with his trainer Nicky Henderson in flying form (50% strike-rate in the past fortnight) he may well add to that and land this Grade 2 with ground conditions coming good for the gelding. (9/2) – Bet365 – 1pt – Lost (-1)

#IWAC – CESAR ET ROSALIE (4.25 Chepstow) – A bit of a risk after his latest effort when well beaten at Cartmel off this mark of 109 but I think you can forgive a horse for underperforming at a track like that and if you judge him on his penultimate start when winning at bangor then I think this nine-year-old might be a little overpriced at double-figure odds. He won that day by a head but the form has been franked with the second filling the same spot twice since and both the fourth and fifth horse winning subsequently. That came off only a pound lower mark and he’s still well handicapped having won off 3lb and 9lb higher marks in the past. Kieran Buckley is a good booking for this race for conditionals and with the horse 3/5 over the distance and a 4-time winner on good ground anything near his best he looks a good each-way bet providing last time out was just a blip. (12/1) – William Hill – 0.5pt ew (4 places) – Lost (-1)

Stake: 2pts

October P/L: +2.5pts

Overall P/L (Sept ’17-present): +587.24pts