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3.00 – Sky Bet Dovecote Novices´ Hurdle (Grade 2) Cl1 2m ITV4

12/13 – Ran within the last 5 weeks
12/13 – Had won over 2m (hurdles) before
11/13 – Had never raced over hurdles at Kempton before
9/13 – Placed favourites
9/13 – Aged either 4 or 5 years-old
10/13 – Won between 0-2 times over hurdles before
10/13 – Came from the top 3 in the betting
8/13 – Won last time out
6/13 – Went onto run at that season’s Cheltenham Festival (no winners)
5/13 – Winning favourites
4/13 – French bred
4/13 – Trained by Alan King
4/13 – Trained by Nicky Henderson
3/13 – Ridden by Barry Geraghty
2/13 – Trained by Paul Nicholls
2/13 – Returned a double-figure price in the betting
The average winning SP in the last 10 runnings is 9/2
Note: The 2006 renewal was staged at Sandown Park

TQ View: This is another race the Alan King yard have done well in over the years, with wins in 2009, 2012 and 2016, so their runner Scarlet Dragon is a good place to start. This 6 year-old is a 100+ rated flat performer that has made a good transition to hurdles – winning once from three runs. The form of his recent Huntingdon win has since been franked with the runner-up winning in midweek so there could be a lot more to come.

Itchy Feet and Rouge Vif are others that have done well this season and represent the same owners. They are both rated 142 so there is nothing between them, but with Itchy Feet a proven course and distance winner then he might just edge it.

However, the call here is to stick with the promising ANGELS BREATH, from the Nicky Henderson yard that have won this race three times since 2013. This 5 year-old is lightly-raced (just one run over hurdles) so connections are trying to get more race time into him before Cheltenham.

He did, however, hose-up on his sole hurdles run at Ascot back in December and it’s no secret the yard thinks a lot of him. He’s already one of the main runners in the ante-post betting for the Supreme and Ballymore Novices’ Hurdles so a win here will see his support for those engagements hot-up.