Paul Nicholls: Cheltenham Festival plans for some of my Novice Hurdlers

Paul Nicholls has a strong hand in the Triumph Hurdle with six entries including the unbeaten Far West

Paul Nicholls spoke to Betfair about his Cheltenham Festival entries for some of his Novice Hurdlers; including some familiar names as well as some who are yet to make their debuts for the Ditcheat handler...

It must still be odds-on that the ground will be much better come Cheltenham in March - this bloody rain surely has to stop soon, or else the next National Hunt Trainers' Federation meeting will pass for a Tony Calvin-lookalike competition - and that is something that we all have to bear in mind when making our Festival entries at the moment.

And punters when they are placing their ante-post bets, too.

As I have said before, virtually all the major trials have been run in bottomless ground, and things are likely to be very different - not only the ground, but the speed and tempo of the races - come the middle of March.

Another bi-product of this frustrating wet weather, and the subsequent abandonments, is that a lot of trainers may still have a lot of unexposed, and unraced, horses in their yards.

So I am sure a lot of trainers still have some of these to unleash in the coming weeks, perhaps more so than in previous years, especially in the novice hurdle ranks.

In recent seasons, we haven't even seen the Triumph Hurdle winner out until the Adonis at Kempton in late February on a couple of occasions - Soldatino and Zarkandar - so what price this year's winner is still to show his hand?

I obviously have the current form horse Far West in the Triumph - by the way his owners were down to see him school this morning, we are very, very happy with him and he is likely to go straight to Cheltenham - but among my six entries are Brinestine and Lac Fontana, still to race for me.

I always reserve judgement on my juveniles until I have seen them on the track. But both are pleasing me at home. Brinestine was progressive on the Flat in Ireland, and was due to run at Sandown tomorrow before the rain intervened. He has options at Huntingdon and Taunton next week.

He works and schools with Lac Fontana, who showed smart Flat form over 1m2f in France. Let's hope he is another Zarkandar for Jared and Chris! He is out a week tomorrow at Newbury, where the lads also run Silviniaco Conti in the Betfair Denman Chase.

Before I talk about three other Festival-entered horses still to race for me, I must just mention Dodging Bullets and Aaim To Prosper.

The former is very much the forgotten horse of the Supreme, but go and take a look at his run in the Christmas Hurdle and you realise that he shouldn't be. He is very well and he will probably go straight to Cheltenham, though he will have an entry in the Dovecote.

And if it does come up good ground at Cheltenham, then Aaim To Prosper is exactly the kind of horse who could throw his hat into the ring.

His hurdling debut form was nothing special ratings-wise but we all know what a smart, good ground stayer he was on the Flat. He has done really well since that first run and is entered in both the Albert Bartlett and Neptune. I can't wait to get him out on better ground.

I also have Just A Par, Pay The King and Mac's Return in those two races, although none have raced for me as yet.

I would probably class all three as future chasers - don't I always though!!! - and are only tentative entries at this stage. But all have shown a lot of promise previously, and at home for me, and I want to have the option of running them should they impress me on their stable debuts in the coming weeks.

Just A Par is a winning pointer and a seven length winner of a Punchestown bumper in November, and looks a lovely prospect for Paul Barber and Graham Roach; Pay The King won a Gowran bumper in October and looks a real chaser in the making for Mr Geffen; and Mac's Return has pleased me since being bought by John Hales after winning his point in November.

The next few weeks will tell us more about them and whether Cheltenham could be on the agenda this year, next year or in the future.

Until then, the dream is still alive!