GAVIN CROMWELL: Spades Are Trumps to debut over fences

GAVIN CROMWELL: With six runners scheduled for this weekend including one at Cheltenham it’s set to be a busy couple of days for Gavin and his team.

Punchestown Saturday

Our first runner of the weekend is Alfa Mix in the novice hurdle (12.15pm) at Punchestown on Saturday.

He was a very good winner of a maiden hurdle at Tramore the last day, though the form of that win doesn’t look the strongest unfortunately. We’re not quite sure how well treated he is on the back of that, but this will tell us a lot more about where we are with him and if he’s up to this sort of grade.

He won that race well last time. However, I wouldn’t be overly confident he’ll be able to back that up here.

Spades Are Trumps makes his debut over fences in the beginners chase (12.50pm). He’s ready to start out over the bigger obstacles, though it looks a pretty hot renewal with the likes of Faugheen entered. He ran a good race the last day at Kilarney but he’ll need to step up on what he did over hurdles to be competitive here.

We run Bread And Butter in the maiden hurdle (2.35pm). He’s a nice horse, but looks one for handicaps at this stage.

I thought Jaunty Velocity ran pretty well the last day at Wexford on her first start for us. She runs in the handicap hurdle (3.10pm) and we think the race should suit. There are 22 runners which she should like and given she’s come out of the Wexford race, we’re hoping she can go nicely.

Cheltenham Saturday

We’ve got one runner at the November meeting at Cheltenham in the form of Peaches And Cream in the handicap hurdle (3.30pm). He unfortunately fell the last day at Galway, but prior to that he’d been pretty consistent for us in this sort of race.

We’re a bit concerned by the ground as he won’t have experienced it as soft as this before, though we don’t see any reason to suggest he won’t get through it. He looks fairly enough treated off 126 and should run a solid race.

Punchestown Sunday

Our sole runner on Sunday is Ejayteekay in the handicap hurdle (1.40pm) at Punchestown. She was very consistent over the summer, but she just seems to have lost her way a bit in the last couple of runs. There are only nine runners and she’s ran well in better races than this before, so we’d like to think she’ll go okay.