Timeform Daily View: Points of interest

Timeform Daily View | Boxing Day preview and tips

By Nic Doggett

Horse Racing

Tue December 23, 2025 · 6h ago

Nic Doggett provides an overview of the key things to note on Boxing Day.

When I’m picking winners

The William Hill Formby Novices’ Hurdle (13:05) presumably takes its name from the local area rather than the English actor, singer-songwriter and comedian, but you may be more familiar with the Grade 1 in its former guise: the Tolworth Novices’ Hurdle, run at Sandown until 2023.

The race – which was won by Desert Orchid in 1984 - has a strong rollcall of winners, with the likes of French Holly (1998) and Monsignor (2000) winning around the turn of the century, Yorkhill (2016) breaking the general proliferation of wins for Paul Nicholls and Nicky Henderson in the 2010s, before the latter reasserted his dominance thanks to victories for Constitution Hill (2022) and Jango Baie (2023) in recent times.

Seeking an eighth win in the race, Henderson’s representative this year is....not here. Act Of Innocence, a former Paul Nicholls inmate who made a good impression when impressively landing a 15-runner maiden at Newbury on his hurdling debut, was in the original entries but hasn’t been declared, so instead the only runner with a Timeform ‘Large P’ attached to his rating is Mydaddypaddy.

Unbeaten in a bumper and two starts over timber, he only had two horses to beat at Haydock last time but stormed clear after leading on the bridle approaching the last. He’s a hugely exciting prospect and sure to go on to better things.

Fellow ‘Horse In Focus’ Idaho Sun, who was a valiant sixth in the Champion Bumper after losing his place and has won both hurdling starts since, represents Harry Fry who won this race with Metier in 2021, and he, too, is very exciting. That comment also applies to Wetherby winner Starmount, Doncaster victor Storming George, and Grade 2 winner Diamond Hunter, all of whom looked very straightforward when making most in their respective races.

It looks a good test, but one that Mydaddypaddy will need to pass if he’s to continue on-track for the Supreme.

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Pay to Park once again

Plenty of others have covered the Kempton developments, both on this site and others, but this year’s excellent renewal of the Ladbrokes King George VI Chase (14:30) helps push the course into the forefront of the nation’s sporting consciousness for the right reasons, regardless of your view on everything happening off the course.

But I'll leave it to other better qualified judges to work out the puzzle of the race itself and concentrate elsewhere on the action from Sunbury-On-Thames.

Personally, I don’t think there are many better sights than watching young up-and-coming novice chasers put in a strong round of jumping, and that is often what is needed to win races such as the Timeform Novices' Handicap Chase at Cheltenham in January or the 'Get Your Ladbrokes Free Kempton Bet' Novices' Limited Handicap Chase (12:45) on Boxing Day.

Recent winners have tended to jump a little left, but nearly all – most notably Leader In The Park 12 months ago – have put in very assured rounds of fencing, a trait that Noble Park showed in abundance when coming well clear of subsequent winner Vandepoel at Lingfield last month. He’s 11lb higher here but is still well clear on Timeform’s weight-adjusted ratings, and he looks a horse going places.

Six-year-olds have won ten of the last 11 renewals, so Secret Des Dieux will need to buck that trend – and prove that this trip brings out his best – if he is to prevail, while Barvolento is 2lb better off with old rival U Cant Be Serious having got to within half a length of him at Exeter on his return to action last month.

Flags galore in competitive Rowland Meyrick

It may not have the graded races of Kempton or Aintree, or even Leopardstown or Limerick across the Irish Sea, but the Boxing Day card at Wetherby will be as well attended as any. However, that isn’t the case for this year’s William Hill Rowland Meyrick Handicap Chase (13:35) which has seen just five horses declared, the fewest for over twenty years.

That isn’t to say it's not an interesting contest, though, with just 6 lb separating the five runners on weight-adjusted ratings. Top of the pile is impressive Rehearsal Chase winner Konfusion who possesses the ‘Horse In Focus’ and ‘Horses For Courses’ flag and – looking at the Timeform In-Play Symbols (IPS) - it appears that he could get an easy lead as he bids to follow up.

Like the yard of Joel Parkinson and Sue Smith, Sam Thomas also has the ‘Hot Trainer’ flag at present and this test should suit the well-treated Our Power, while it could bring out improvement in Knappers Hill who looked and shaped as if needing the run when 8 lengths fourth to The Jukebox Man at Haydock last time.

We know that stamina is no issue for Marble Sands who took his form up a notch when upped in trip at Cheltenham last month, so he may have more to come in this sphere despite his advancing years, while Butch was held up (change of tactics following a summer wind op) when miles behind Knappers Hill at Haydock but remains capable of better with that run under his belt, especially if there is any further rain around (four of five wins on soft ground).

A tricky puzzle to solve, then, though still infinitely easier than the instructions for the kids' toys you're still trying to interpret.