Betfair Exchange Handicap Chase – 1.15 Cheltenham – Saturday 24th January

The Betfair Exchange Handicap Chase at 1.15 at Cheltenham on Saturday’s Trials Day card is quite clearly all about Jagwar, who was a combination of unlucky and slightly ungainly on seasonal return over course and distance at the December Cheltenham meeting.

There is no doubting that, all things being equal, Jagwar will end up as the best horse in the field but whether that realisation is Saturday, at the Cheltenham Festival itself in March, or indeed somewhere further into the future is up for debate.

You very much get the impression that the training duo would love a go at the Ryanair Chase come March, but of course the owner has the current short-priced favourite and last year’s winner for that. So, it might be that Jagwar’s Festival target is the Ultima Handicap Chase and will surely appreciate the step up in trip he’ll encounter there. If that was indeed his intended destination, then he wouldn’t want to be going up too much from a current mark of 149.

Next in the market is Booster Bob, who I feel perhaps has a little to prove on an undulating track and dropping back in trip, after seemingly really appreciating the flat galloping expanses of Newbury the last twice.

So, the bet for me in the race is the 7/1 generally available each-way about the bottom weight Javert Allen. It appears as if the top two in the entries, JPR One and Touch Me Not, won’t run here and so Javert Allen will get in at a weight that regular pilot Ciaran Gethings will be able to get down to. The key angle with this horse is the notion that being able to dictate matters on stepping up in trip will bring about an even better performance than we have been seeing.

His two handicap chase runs over 2m so far this season have been excellent, and he has just lacked an extra gear late on, but the way races suit prominent racers like Javert Allen around this track, and combined with the lack of other obvious prominent racers, means that Javert Allen can go very close to landing this valuable prize from what will probably (and hopefully) be a fast-finishing Jagwar…