Races To Keep An Eye On In The 2011/12 Jumps Season

2m Novice Chases The Races To Watch In 2011/12

Look out for a particularly strong bunch of two-mile novice chasers in the new season - and it could be the Supreme Novices' Hurdle winner Al Ferof who heads them up.

However, the John Hales-owned grey gelding is far from the only horse from that race who's likely to make an impact over fences. Assuming that, of the Nicky Henderson-trained pair who filled the frame, Spirit Son will spend another year's hurdling, Sprinter Sacre - reportedly a chasing type in appearance - is likely to do well over the larger obstacles.

And one who finished a bit further back in the Supreme, the six-year-old Rathlin, is in my Ten To Follow for the season.

But there are potential novice chasing stars that ran in other races besides the Supreme, and what about the Top Novices' Hurdle third Sire De Grugy, whose three hurdle wins included the Grade 2 Dovecote at Kempton in February. You only have to watch him race to see that chasing is what he's going to be about in the long term - potentially, he could turn out to be the best jumper that Gary Moore has trained.

Several above-average Irish-trained novice hurdlers besides Rathlin have also been put up as novice chasers to watch in the new season; Shot From The Hip (who has potential if he stays hurdling), Hidden Universe (although jumping right has been an issue with him) and another of my ten for this season, Celtic Folklore, could fit the bill, while a darker one is the lightly-raced eight-year-old Tofino Bay, a point winner before taking the valuable bumper for pointers at Fairyhouse in April 2009. Not seen out after winning at Punchestown in February, surely his reappearance will be in a chase.

Juvenile hurdlers that join Al Ferof's trainer Paul Nicholls are likely to have their first runs in novice chases while they're still aged four, and last season he had three that looked like chasers in the making. The one-time Triumph Hurdle favourite Sam Winner was described as 'a big chasing type in the making' by Nicholls' assistant trainer Dan Skelton after he'd been well beaten in the Finale at Chepstow on ground thought to be too soft for him.

Sam Winner ranked second to Zarkandar among Nicholls' juvenile hurdlers last season, but assuming the Triumph/Anniversary Hurdle winner isn't going chasing himself, Cedre Bleu - deeply impressive in beating Titan De Sarti at Newbury on his British debut, but stuck in the mud behind Spirit Son at Exeter on his only other start (showing similarities to Sam Winner in that respect re: ground) and Empire Levant, who looks big and gangly on TV pictures, could catch Sam Winner up once the trio tackle fences.

But the best two-mile chaser Nicholls will run in 2011/12 might not be one of his youngest. Ahead of Howard Johnson's decision to retire from training after being given a four-year ban by the BHA over the Striking Article business, it was announced that Graham Wylie, since 2002 Johnson's principal patron, was sending horses to the champion jumps trainer. One of these is the massive Quwetwo, who missed last season but, on the first of only two starts in 2010, beat none other than Zaynar in the Morebattle Hurdle at Kelso over 2m2f on heavy ground.

Quwetwo was below form in that year's Aintree Hurdle when last seen in public, and won't want any further than the trip of the Morebattle. Officially rated 147, the potential for him to be the top two-mile novice chaser of 2011/12 is obvious - but several others possess the same potential, and that's why for me, two-mile novice chasing looks the most interesting division at the start of the new season.

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