Antepost Racing Tips: Hobbs has a great chance in Lanzarote with 4/1 French Ship

• Two weekend tips for Kempton at 4/15.00 and 7/24.50

• Warwick feature shaping up to be a cracker...weather permitting

• Nicholls runner a selection at 12/113.00

• Alan Dudman has three selections in his first antepost column of the new year 

Kempton, 14:08, 3m Handicap Chase: Back The Doyen Chief @ 7/24.50

We're up against the elements a little this week and while, as a youngster the snow excited me, the charms are less so now I am older. Kempton is not raceable at the time of writing but hopefully the weather improves enough for the big weekend racing to take place.

I was going to start by talking of a much admired old friend in the shape of The Doyen Chief, but a profusion of unhappy errors this term means he is no longer a chum.

Is he still a bet though this weekend? Perhaps.

I backed him at Bangor for his first start of the season and he should have won. He came there cruising and hit 1.162/13 in-running on the Betfair Exchange only for Tom Bellamy to get in a spuddle at the last. A bad blunder meant curtains.

Again, I fancied him for the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury and while he was given as "PU", he was effectively non-runner as he was facing the wrong way.

Then, last time out, he was fifth at Cheltenham, which was perhaps an afterthought following the Newbury disaster. It hardly reads well as a bet and I am not the biggest fan of the jockey either.

However, he's a 7/24.50 chance for what looks an easier assignment than Newbury and Cheltenham. He's also been dropped down to 138, and I think he's a better horse than that. As a course and distance winner with good ground form (and we are currently good on the stick in Sunbury) I am with him again.

It could be the Shirley MacLaine with him now (The Turning Point), or at least one hopes.

Kempton, 15:17, Coral Lanzarote Handicap Hurdle: Back French Ship @ 4/15.00

French Ship is a horse I have been waiting to turn out again and he's the only one I am interested in for this year's Lanzarote Hurdle.

It's a race that has so far eluded Philp Hobbs, but Hobbs and White are a different beast this season and French Ship is beginning to reach new levels in his career.

I was most impressed with his success at Newbury last time - winning a Class 2 in fairly comfortable fashion from 136 - swatting away a rise of 8lb from a previous win.

He travelled strongly throughout under Harry Cobden on the pace, and the jockey probably thought he was going to win easily. However, Guard Duty, the eventual second made a race of it of sorts, but it was the end when Cobden asked him for a little more and "whooshka" he went.

Another rise in the weights puts him at the top of the tree and it will be interesting to see if Hobbs will be able to use Cobden again as Paul Nicholls' Captain Teague has an entry and presumably he will be on him. But French Ship looks a horse of immense promise. 

Warwick, 14:55, Classic Handicap Chase (Premier Handicap) Back: Makin'yourmindup EW @ 12/113.00

Sixteen entries for what looks potentially a top race at Warwick in the Classic. Myretown, the Ultima victor from last season, is the favourite ahead of L'Homme Presse who is rated 162, and we have Mr Vango, Val Dancer with Nassalam as the Welsh National heroes past and present.

What a race.

Myretown fell when favourite for the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury and while L'Homme Presse is a class act, he's from a big weight as a veteran now and it could be tough to concede to sprightlier rivals.

The ground will have to be soft for Mr Vango, and connections will be hoping the clerk of the course from Chepstow isn't transferred following the ludicrous going description on Welsh National Day as good to soft when track records were being lowered.

Myretown could well bolt up here given he was a Fez winner by 11 lengths but I do like the each-way chances of the Paul Nicholls-trained Makin'yourmindup.

He'd be getting two stone from L'Homme Presse and I wouldn't read too much into his 41 length defeat in the Welsh Grand National Trial last time as that was his first run after a break and first outing since a wind op.

Nicholls has always thought fences would bring out the best in him, and while he won twice in testing ground at Newbury over 3m in early 2024, his jumping still can improve and going left-handed with a test suits too.

He is on 134, and on his Newbury successes could be on a good mark and 35 days after his Chepstow run and Nicholls has won this race three times, the last of which came in 2015.

Don't forget that you can read Nicholls' verdict on the horse on these very pages on Friday. 

Now read Sam Turner on the Festival eyecatchers from the festive racing