Saturday Racing Tips: Tony Calvin's hoping for a First at Cheltenham with Street and Terrier

• Happy with ante-post tip but not pressing up

• First Street has a big chance in International Hurdle

• Nina The Terrier ticks lots of boxes

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Quite how the ground will ride once the frost covers come up again at Cheltenham on Saturday morning will be at the forefront of trainers' minds - assuming we get another green light, that is - so we may get a fair few non-runners in the next 24 hours from the cautious crew.

Indeed, the ground has bizarrely already claimed the 4/1 ante-post favourite for the 2m4f127yd December Gold Cup at 13:50, with Midnight River not being confirmed for the race on Thursday morning, with Dan Skelton feeling it wouldn't be soft enough for his horse.

You get mixed messages from racing professionals as to what happens once the covers are peeled back. Maybe it will ride good as advertised, but many think dead, tacky, holding ground often results.

Anyway, we can only focus on the here and now, so let's crack on.

Hope ante-post tip gives us a run for our money but I won't be pressing up

I hope Venetia Williams deems it suitable for my 14/1 ante-post tip Frero Banbou, as there is nothing more frustrating than not getting a run for your money.

Well, not in betting, anyway.

Fortune will hopefully favour the brave though, as he has an excellent chance of improving past a fairly static handicap mark as he goes up to 2m4f for the first time.

He has shaped as if it was well worth trying on a few occasions, most obviously when third in the Grand Annual here last season, and this is a horse who won over an extended 2m1f as a 4yo in France.

His two efforts over 2m1f at Ascot this term have been a touch tame but he has travelled kindly in both affairs (he was often a moody sort early doors last season, getting detached, and giving himself little winning chance), and they have just hammered home that he now needs a trip to figure more prominently in these big handicaps, especially away from deep ground.

I'll be honest and say he's only a fair price at around 9/1 on the exchange now, and I wouldn't be pressing up myself at that level, so I can't put him up afresh here.

Outside of him, nothing much stood out to me at the current odds, though the 2lb well-in Fantastic Lady also brings a different form-line into the equation.

However, she is probably short enough at around 9s on the exchange given the doubts about her in a big-field handicap for the first time and the fear she will get outpaced in the opening exchanges.

Street has big chance of coming First in the International

I couldn't believe it when First Street opened up at 9/1 with the Betfair Sportsbook for the International on Thursday morning and I was not alone, as the 9s went to 7s to 5s in double-quick time.

I appreciate his stablemate Epatante could be tough to beat (as her price suggests) , and he also meets fellow improvers I Like To Move It and Knappers Hill, but I very much like First Street's profile as he steps back up in grade.

The form of his Betfair Hurdle third and County Hurdle second to State Man last season is not that far detached from Epatante's Grade 1 exploits, and you had to be impressed by his Gerry Feilden win on his return, a race in which he gave 25lb and a comprehensive defeat to a fair, fancied sort.

The fact that he comes here instead of going to a valuable Ascot handicap a week on Saturday could be a tip in itself - and therefore risking Epatante being chinned by a stablemate once again - and, a big unit, First Street strikes as the sort to keep on progressing with his racing.

As ever, the question is has his price ebbed away too much now?

If the 9s and 7s hadn't been on offer initially, I would have happily taken the 6.611/2 on the exchange, so that is the way I am going to play it. The 5s with the Sportsbook is probably acceptable too, and that is my minimum price guide.

If you are thinking of betting each-way in this five-runner contest, then do not, as it currently stands. The outsider Zoffanien is set to run at Cheltenham on Friday afternoon.

Lots of boxes ticked for Nina

I have had a small win-only, fixed-odds nibble on Grand Soir at 10s for the 3m novices' hurdle at 15:00, as I thought he did well to win decisively at Cork last time, after making a last-flight mistake, and he is a guaranteed stayer from a yard which have done so well on their recent Cheltenham forays.

I imagine he will be around that price on the exchange near the off on Saturday afternoon, but I can't really tip him at his current odds, and I fully accept he is up against three very promising sorts, too.

I'd be pretty worried about Theatre Glory - and I may include her in a reverse forecast with the selection - but Nina The Terrier has everything going for her in the 2m4f56yd mares' handicap hurdle at 15:35, so back her at 6.05/1 or bigger.

She has run well on all three starts at around the minimum trip this season, and has been dropped 1lb for her Greatwood Hurdle fifth here last time, but I like the angle of her stepping back up in trip.

Her four efforts at trips in excess of 2m3f have resulted in form figures of 2132, and she simply scores highly on every level here, be it handicap mark, course form, recent efforts, trip and likely ground.

Of course, she is vulnerable to an unexposed improver, but I'll take my chances at 5/1+.

No bets at Donny but Gavroche is interesting

Doncaster's three races on ITV are pretty uninspiring and that is being kind - the best race, the 3m handicap chase at 14:05, isn't even on the box for some unfathomable reason - and I am not having a bet there.

The nine-runner Summit Hurdle at 13:30 features six horses that have the option of going to Cheltenham - though the big guns Nusret and Scriptwriter have Donny as their first preferences - so that is best left alone for now.

The 0-120 seven-runner handicap chase at 14:40 is a shocker, and the 0-115 novices' handicap hurdle at 15:15 is only partly redeemed by possibly having one of these point-to-point plots in its midst.

Mind you, the horse in question, Gavroche D'allier, only opened up at a top-priced 3s on Thursday, so this is hardly an under-the-radar job.

The angle with him is that he hasn't shaped without promise at three huge prices in maiden and novice hurdles, for which he has been given a lowly mark of 94, and he has one piece of point form that makes him very interesting.

He finished a 6-length second of 17 in an Irish point in December 2021 and the winner won a 20-runner Punchestown maiden hurdle two months later on his next start (and also finished a very good third over fences recently) and the third won a point by 15 lengths afterwards, having fallen on his following start.

Milton Harris is 5 from 23 with first-time cheekpieces, and you have to think his charge must have an excellent chance in what is quite frankly an atrocious race.

A very low-key Saturday then but, fingers crossed, Cheltenham survives.