188Bet Faller Refunds At Cheltenham Thursday Handicap Chase

Off time: 14:25 | Winning time: 5m 32.21s

Thomas Blossom⁴⁷

Age: 8| Weight: 11-12| J: Adam Wedge| T: A Stronge| OR: 100

11/1

Below his winning mark and less highly tried than last time. Needs to prove himself on ground as soft as this.

Form: 3103-46

Vote Of Confidence^t¹⁶⁹

Age: 8| Weight: 11-0| J: Bridget Andrews⁽³⁾| T: D Skelton| OR: 88| DWS

13/8

Beat Alpha Des Obeaux in his prime but his form has been in decline recently. Debuts for new yard following wind surgery and from an attractive mark. Forecast conditions are softer than ideal.

Form: 2-PP068

Skint^b,t⁹

Age: 12| Weight: 11-0| J: Benjamin Poste| T: M Scudamore| OR: 88| D

4/1

Well-handicapped on old form and produced his best effort for some time in an equally bad race last week. Ground should be slightly less holding this time and he could take some beating.

Form: 855562

Appletree Lane^p1³⁶

Age: 8| Weight: 10-13| J: T Dowling⁽⁵⁾| T: T R Gretton| OR: 87

7/1

Still seeking that elusive first win and needs to bounce back from a dismal run last month. Cheekpieces now fitted and dropped in grade.

Form: 523-435

Global Domination^p,t1²⁴

Age: 10| Weight: 10-11| J: Andrew Tinkler| T: Mrs Caroline Bailey| OR: 85| BF

10/3

Second here in January after getting detached following a terrible blunder. Jumping let him down again last time and he is becoming expensive to follow.

Form: 11/6323

Touch Of Steel^b,t1⁴¹

Age: 9| Weight: 10-10| J: R T Dunne| T: O Greenall & J Guerriero| OR: 84WS

12/1

Sprung a surprise at Catterick a year ago but has been well below that form since. Has undergone wind surgery following two poor efforts and new headgear combination fitted.

Form: 198-7PP

Forecasts

Vote Of Confidence (13/8), Global Domination (10/3), Skint (4/1), Appletree Lane (7/1), Thomas Blossom (11/1), Touch Of Steel (12/1)

Dan Skelton enjoyed a good spring/summer campaign in 2017 with cheap acquisitions from smaller yards. VOTE OF CONFIDENCE gets the nod off a highly attractive mark with fingers crossed that the change of stables produces slight improvement and that conditions are less testing than forecast. Skint ran well in similar company last week but had a hard race that day, whilst Global Domination has made costly errors on his last two starts. Appletree Lane is hard to recommend following a poor run last time, but a market move for Touch Of Steel following a wind operation would be significant in a race as bad as this.