Rubaud will have to wait a little longer to start his chasing career after winning Kempton’s valuable Listed Hurdle in great style on Sunday for the second year running.

His schooling over fences at home has been very good but first I felt it was worth taking him back to a course that plays so well to his strengths.He’s a class act, travelled stylishly throughout at Kempton and readily saw off the challenge of Kihavah on the flat.
Some of our winter horses have been just needing their first runs but Rubaud had done plenty and is now likely to try to repeat his victory in the Elite Hurdle at Wincanton before switching to fences. He’s going to be an exciting chaser.
Beau Balko also ran a nice ran at Kempton and like a few of ours will benefit from the outing. It’s a long season and the better horses are coming on beautifully at home and we will have plenty of winners soon.
I’m already looking ahead to the weekend when we will have some interesting runners at Cheltenham’s two day meeting and at Aintree and Wincanton on Sunday. Brave Knight might go to Cheltenham on Friday and Kalif Du Berlais could run there on Saturday while Hitman and Stage Star are both likely to go for the Old Roan Chase at Aintree.
For the latest news on my weekend runners please be sure to check out my Betfair column which goes live on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.