Festive Racing: All I want for Christmas...

Joe Rendall: Al Ferof, King George

There are plenty of racing highlights over the festive period: Grand National Hero Auroras Encore is due to make his seasonal re-appearance at Wetherby, a whole score of unexposed staying chasers will do battle in the Welsh National and Willie Mullins will unleash the full strength of his  equine battalions on the unsuspecting folk of Leopardstown.

However what sits atop the festive racing tree for this jumps fan is the prospect of Al Ferof in the King George. I've been waiting a while for him to tackle the festive showpiece; in fact by the time the tapes go up at Kempton on Boxing Day it will be it will have been one year, 11 months and five days exactly. The time elapsed is since the son of Dom Alco finished a gallant third in the 2012 renewal of the Victor Chandler Chase.

Then-stable-jockey Ruby Walsh made a very interesting comment in the aftermath that day, saying his mount could turn into a perfect King George horse. Walsh is one of the shrewdest members of the weighing room, with the result that on the occasions when he comes out with such statements, you are obligated to sit up and listen. 

I duly backed him for the 2012 renewal, and after last year's Paddy Power Gold Cup was in buoyant mood as my ante-post wager looked to be in good shape. My smugness was duly rewarded when he was ruled out for the rest of the season through injury. 

However after his seasonal re-appearance at Ascot last month, in which he looked to have lost none of his old zest (despite some surprising jumping in the closing stages) I once again head to Kempton full of festive hope. He will relish the track and the step-up in trip and there are none better than Nicholls at priming his horses for a big occasion. Roll on Kempton!

Keith Melrose: The New One & My Tent Or Yours, Christmas Hurdle

Is it cheating to put two down? You can't really choose one where the Christmas Hurdle is concerned: without My Tent Or Yours in the race it becomes another procession for The New One- like Kempton and Cheltenham already this winter- and vice versa. 

These two have come a long way since they last met, in Aintree's Champion Bumper a year past April. It's difficult to say which has enjoyed the better time of it since: The New One has that sought-after Festival success and so nearly won the Aintree Hurdle as a novice, while My Tent Or Yours boasts one of the greatest handicap performances in recent years from his Betfair Hurdle romp. Either way, the victor on Boxing Day will probably become The Horse To Beat in March's Champion Hurdle. With the picture in Ireland remaining pretty foggy- at least until the Festival Hurdle, and a prospective clash between Hurricane Fly, Our Conor and Jezki, takes place on the 29th- that's probably quite right too. 

As for which way this hotly-anticipated Christmas Hurdle is likely to go, I'm going to hark back to that Aintree bumper duel for inspiration. Timeform's report on that race says The New One "needed shaking up to worry the runner-up out of it near the finish". 

Sound familiar? It was a failure to pick up off the bridle that prevented My Tent Or Yours from beating Champagne Fever at Cheltenham (with all due respect to that undoubtedly top-class hurdler) and it's something that will be tested again on Boxing Day: horses without real grit, no matter how capable, simply won't be able to resist The New One's already celebrated turn of foot. It will be fascinating to see how AP McCoy, who delivered one of his most famous tactical strokes to win on Straw Bear in the Christmas Hurdle six years ago, decides to deal with an altogether different threat.

Tony McFadden: Morning Assembly, Topaz Novice Chase

Taking on Willie Mullins has not been a profitable punting strategy this season - admittedly in no small part due to the lack of trainers willing to actually try- but the Topaz Novice Chase, a three-mile Grade 1 on the fourth and final day of Leopardstown's Christmas Festival, could be one of those rare occasions where the County Carlow-based handler doesn't dominate proceedings.

A number of highly-promising novices are engaged at this stage, including Willie Mullins' Ballycasey, the current market leader for the RSA Chase, but the most interesting runner, in my view at least, is the Pat Fahy-trained Morning Assembly. A chaser on looks, it was encouraging that Morning Assembly was capable of showing smart form over hurdles last season, winning a Grade 1 novice over three miles at the Punchestown Festival on his final start of the campaign. Interestingly, the highly-touted Ballycasey was seven lengths back in third on that occasion, having been sent off as an even-money favourite.

Morning Assembly has made an impressive start to his chase career, winning on both outings, and he displayed an admirable attitude when prevailing in a hard-fought finish with Don Cossack over 22 furlongs at Punchestown last time. At the time, Don Cossack's reputation was somewhat similar to that of Audley Harrison's - a big, burly bruiser built for a scrap but who often failed to convince with his resolution - however a subsequent success, gained in determined fashion, has altered that unfair comparison and makes Morning Assembly's victory all the more meritorious.  

A tough, sound jumper capable of producing a bold leap when asked, Morning Assembly looks to have all the traits require to make up into a top-class staying chaser and he should relish the return to three miles at Leopardstown.