John Burke

Evening all,

It’s jumps chat all the way today as I look back at the weekend’s action from Cheltenham, Kelso and Aintree. There’s also my first NH eyecatchers of the winter campaign. Plus, there’s a Tuesday selection from Chepstow.

Evening all,

I love a good cliché. Here's today's. “The winter jumps season is clicking into gear”.

The racing wasn’t of the very highest quality. Indeed, for me the best chases didn’t take place at Cheltenham on Saturday. Kelso staged a competitive handicap on its Saturday card and arguably the race of the weekend was Aintree’s Old Roan Chase on the Sunday. More on both races and Cheltenham’s Showcase meeting in Tuesday’s column.

Inside today’s main piece you’ll read my thoughts on the big juvenile performance at Doncaster and Newbury on Saturday. Plus, there’s a Monday selection from Ayr at the end of the main piece.

Evening all,

The week finishes with some excellent racing and ITV4 are covering the best of the action from Aintree and Limerick where the feature race is the Ladbrokes Munster National (3:35). The feature race at Aintree is the Grade 2 Jewson Old Roan Handicap Chase (2.40). There’s been rain at Aintree which has eased the ground to good, good to soft in places. The rain that fell over the last few days across Ireland arrived at Limerick and the ground there is being described as yielding to soft.

Inside today’s main piece I preview two of the big races at Aintree and the Munster National.

Evening all,

There was a hint of winter in the air at Cheltenham on Friday. Ok, the ground was more what you would expect at a summer flat meeting, but jumps racing is most definitely back. The rain even arrived on Friday morning with 9mm falling, turning the ground from good to firm to good all over. Looking at the times I would say it was getting closer to good to soft.

There’s good action across both codes on Saturday. The highlight of a seven race card at Doncaster is the Group 1 Vertem Futurity. It’s Newbury’s final flat card of the season. The feature races of a seven race card are pair of Group 3s, the Horris Hill Stakes (1.50) and St. Simon Stakes (2.25).

Inside today’s main piece I preview few of the races on ITV4 this afternoon.