Billie Magern is interesting in Paddy Power

A drop back to 2m 4f on fast ground seemed to bring out the best in Ollie Magerns full brother ,who landed the feature at Cheltenham on Saturday.Straight after the race the sponsors priced him up at 25/1,and although it looks like being a strong renewel this year,on decent ground that price would appear to be  too big.He covered the final circuit quicker than Lancetto(rated 135) winner of the 2m nov chase ,having run half a mile further, and some 4 seconds quicker than Balthazar King who won the 3m handicap on the same card.

Looking forward to Chepstow's curtain raiser

After a quiet betting week last week,this Saturday sees the first jumps meeting of the year at Chepstow.In the "good old days " this meeting was covered by the beeb and was widely considered to be the start of the jumps season proper.It no longer enjoys terrestrial tv coverage ,but never the less does signify that the winter season is stepping up a notch or two,and things will certainly start to get much busier soon.  Optimum racing had two runners last week,both dissappointing,Be Ashored who in fairness jumped well on his chase debut,finished 6th,and Saqil who was novicy to say the least over the first 2 or 3 on his hurdles debut finished 5th.        i've no doubt both will do better in the future.     I'll be at Exeter on thursday and hopefully  Chepstow  on Saturday later this week,very much looking forward to the rest of the season,but no doubt remembering the days when this Chepstow fixture carried a lot more significance