Chris Day with his best bets for Cheltenham and Aintree

Recommended bets:

2pts win Itchy Feet in 2.00 Aintree Sunday at 9/2

1pt e.w Midnight Shadow in 2.00 Aintree Sunday at 11/1

1pt win Shoal Bay in 3.50 Cheltenham on Saturday at 10/1

1pt win Sirobbie in 3.15 Cheltenham on Saturday at 14/1

The weekend’s racing really does offer something for everyone with high-class flat action from Doncaster and Newbury along with interesting jumping cards from Cheltenham and Kelso on Saturday before the National Hunt action bandwagon rolls onto Aintree and Wincanton on Sunday.

The highest quality jumps race of the weekend, Aintree’s Monets Garden Old Roan Chase, is a Grade Two limited handicap chase over two-and-a-half miles and is a race rich in history and the starting point for many an exciting chaser on their way through the ranks.

Nicky Henderson’s Janika heads the weights and won the Haldon Gold Cup on his seasonal debut last year from this mark but found himself up against the top horses afterwards. He acquitted himself admirably without troubling the judge and will surely find something better in at the weights here.

Nuts Well is a gritty northern handicapper who has done nothing wrong in his career and must be a pleasure to own but these are deeper waters than even his last victory at Kelso and he’ll need to show something he’s not previously managed to get involved at the business end here.

Paul Nicholls won this with no less a horse than Kauto Star and his hope this year Magic Saint seems best suited to flat left-handed tracks. However his stamina is not assured and this race could put him right for something at Newbury next month so he is passed over. He’s also been well found by the layers.

Of the others, Really Super finds himself in a better race and from a higher mark than when winning Market Rasen’s Summer Plate and was pulled up behind a potential Saturday rival in Imperial Presence last time. That horse and Cracking Destiny bring summer form to a tougher race, Crievehill looks high in the weights and probably needs further while Annie Mc seems to show her best in the second half of the season.

Multiple winners of this race are not a rarity and for that reason last year’s victor Forest Bihan comes into the reckoning from just a 4lbs higher mark. He beat Frodon and Kalashnikov in a 2019 renewal in which the fences in the home straight were omitted.

That said the two he beat are Grade One winners so the form is strong but he got injured in the race and hasn’t run since whereas last year he’d had a pipe opener at Kelso.

Colin Tizzard has Vision Des Flos entered here and he’s an outsider who could run better than his current price suggests from this mark if returning to his hurdles form at a course where he’s twice finished runner up in strong races. However he was unconvincing last season and I’d still want a bigger price before tipping him here.

For me the strongest recent form is also from a horse with the scope for most improvement.

That’s the Olly Murphy-trained ITCHY FEET who beat the reopposing Midnight Shadow in the Grade One Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase in February.

He’s six pounds worse off with the Sue Smith’s runner-up, who was beaten three-and-a-half lengths, and then went off a shorter price than Samcro and Melon for the Marsh Novices’ Chase at Cheltenham, only to unseat early on. He clearly has untapped potential still.

Midnight Shadow won a handicap hurdle here from Ch’Tibello almost two years ago and has scored at Cheltenham’s New Year’s Day meeting in each of the last two seasons but was no match for the Itchy Feet at Sandown.

That trip on soft ground and with the stiff uphill finish may not have been ideal and this may suit him better although it’s worth pointing out that his trainer has had just nine winners in the past five seasons in October. For me I’d be very interested in backing him in the handicap chase at Prestbury Park on January 1st but he’s capable of going close here from this mark

It goes against the grain to tip a favourite for a race six days away but I really do believe this represents the perfect chance for Aidan Coleman, as good a jockey as there is, to cement his new relationship with Murphy and I think Itchy Feet is decent value at 9/2 in a race you know he’s being targeted at.

An each-way saver on MIDNIGHT SHADOW is also advised at 11/1.

At Cheltenham on Saturday there are any number of intriguing contests but running plans seem fluid and some of my fancies have entries elsewhere.

The Matchbook Betting Exchange Handicap Chase looks a cracker at 3.50.

There can’t be many punters who Cogry hasn’t done a good turn for here over the years and, although now 11-years-old, I expect to see him jumping with his usual exuberance out in front.

Frodon tops the weights but it will take a monumental performance to win this from 164 while Walk In The Mill has his prep for a third Becher Chase at Aintree in December.

The one I like is SHOAL BAY who was a convincing winner at Ludlow last time despite looking like he wanted to go left-handed and is worth a bet at 10-1 to confirm that viewpoint from a low weight here. He’s an improving seven-year-old from a top stable. He is entered at Wincanton on Sunday but that’s right-handed so you’d think this would be the target.

There’s also a Pertemps Qualifier at Cheltenham where Colin Tizzard’s Copperhead can run off a 26lbs lower mark over hurdles than his chase mark. He was a dual winner over timber before going on to prove himself a high-class novice chaser and may well blow this race apart but he’s only 6/1 and hurdling and chasing are different entities. His early season aim is the Ladbrokes Trophy so he will presumably improve a bit for the run.

Dan Skelton’s I’d Better Go Now comes here on a hat-trick after wins at Doncaster and Perth but this will be a different ball game to anything he’s seen before so the one I like at a price is SIROBBIE for Harry Whittington. He didn’t really impress as a novice chaser but returned to hurdles at his favourite track Uttoxeter last time and appeared to win with a bit in hand.

He’s still only six and finds plenty for pressure so it’s not hard to see him running on up the famous hill when others have cried enough. At 14/1 I think it’s worth paying to find out.

• Preview posted 2015 BST on 19/10/2020