Friday ITV Racing Selections: Mark Milligan backing three at Newbury at up to 8/1

• Johnnywho the value in novice chase cracker

• William's chaser the day's best bet

• Nicholls' New Horse worth chancing each-way

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13:55 Newbury - Back Johnnywho

This 2m 4f Grade 2 Novice Chase is an absolute cracker, with at least four of the six in the line-up holding strong chances.

It's pair of chasing debutants, Captain Teague and The Jukebox Box Man, who are vying for favouritism at the time of writing, though technically the former already has a win to his name in this sphere courtesy of a walkover at Exeter earlier this month.

Both were smart novice hurdlers and their respective trainers clearly hold them in high regard.

However, they do have to concede chasing experience to Johnnywho, who made a bright start over fences by beating a pair of useful rivals in a three-runner novice contest at Carlisle last time.

Jonjo and AJ O'Neill's seven-year-old jumped fine on his debut over the bigger obstacles there, impressing with how he travelled and readily settling things with the minimum of fuss once produced to lead on the run-in.

He looks a really good prospect in a race that will really whet the appetite as we start to get into the meat of the National Hunt season.

14:30 Newbury - Back Galop De Chasse

Venetia Williams is having her usual strong November (five winners from 15 runners in the last fortnight) and she holds a strong chance of taking this 2m 4f Handicap Chase with Galop De Chasse.

This eight-year-old is a previous C&D winner and still has relatively few miles on the clock for one of his age.

He's clearly had his share of issues as we only saw him once last season, that being the aforementioned C&D win just over a year ago in a slightly lesser contest than this one.

However, he made a highly encouraging comeback when second at Wetherby last time and looks the sort to progress through the handicap ranks if his excellent trainer can get a clear run at things with him.

As you'd expect in a race of this nature, there are plenty of dangers, chief among them being Dan Skelton's Heltenham, who's making his comeback following 224 days off.

A winner three times last season, he was still travelling strongly when falling four from home at Ayr in April and has been given plenty of time to get over that.

Heltenham shouldn't lack for fitness given who trains him, but I'm hopeful that Galop De Chasse will prove just that bit sharper with a recent run under his belt.

15:40 Newbury - Back Hugos New Horse each-way

We have excellent place terms on the Sportsbook in the closing 12-runner 3m handicap hurdle, with four places to go at from an each-way perspective.

That gives this race a good punting shape, particularly with favourite Woodie Flash taking up a decent chunk of the market at 11/43.75.

There's nothing wrong with the claims of Woodie Flash, who found a good deal of improvement when winning at Ffos Las on his comeback, but this is a deeper race and he does have a 7lb rise to overcome.

He could well be capable of doing just that, but I'd rather look for something at a bigger price given the place terms on offer and Hugos New Horse fits the bill.

Paul Nicholls' charge was highly progressive in the 2022/23 season, winning five times over hurdles, but he never really got going in four starts last term, though has had another breathing operation since then and if anyone can get a horse like this back to form it's the Ditcheat handler.

The selection obviously comes with a few strings attached, but he's easing back down to a good mark and looks worth chancing with four places to go at.

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