Friday Racing: Paul Nicholls on his runners at Stratford

Paul discusses his runners' chances as they head to Shakespeare country this afternoon...

15:40, Stratford

Rivaliste

This is just a sharpener over hurdles as we have our eye on a valuable 20k handicap chase at Newton Abbot on the last day of the season. He has never raced over hurdles for me (though he won three times over 2m2f-2m3f in France) so you obviously cannot be confident of his chances, but this is a winnable race at first viewing. He races off a 2lb lower mark than his current chase mark. He hasn't really progressed since his reappearance third at Cheltenham in November but ran ok when third at Doncaster last time. If he does go close it will be a bonus, but it doesn't look the strongest of races, and with James taking 10lb off he must have a leading chance.

17:10, Stratford

Karinga Dancer

Has run two nice races in defeat at Ffos Las and Doncaster, showing a fair level of form, and I think he will appreciate this slightly better ground here, too. His form in the book already gives him a fair chance, though he obviously faces similarly unexposed rivals and some interesting newcomers.

Paul Nicholls / 1 Apr 2011