Cheltenham Placepot picks: Paul Kealy's perm for the £150k guaranteed pool on Saturday

Before Midnight has plenty going for him in Cheltenham's opener (1.15) and he's the first name on my Placepot perm despite not being favourite.

It has to be conceded that Haddex Des Obeaux is the one with all the promise, though, so he goes in too.

In the next (1.50) Blueking D'Oroux officially has at least 9lb in hand of his rivals, and while I doubt there's that much between him and Spirit D'Aunou, that pair stand out and we should hopefully need only one.

Lord Accord and Undersupervision look the pair to beat in the third (2.25), but this is really competitive, so topweight Kinondu Kwetu is added as he's a bit of a winning machine who kept improving last season and rarely fails to run his race.

The fourth (3.00) is another desperately tough heat, and I'll be going with my main pair Hugos New Horse and Espoir De Romay, but will add Bashful Boy, who ran a cracker when fourth in the Cesarewitch two weeks ago.

Antrim Coast was put in at a short price on the opening shows for the novice hurdle (3.35), but on Racing Post Racings at least he has a fair bit to find, so I'm going to take a chance and leave him.

The Charles Byrnes-trained Reverend Hubert, who slammed one of the Pertemps qualifier favourites (Ringdufferin) in August, looks the one to beat, with Butch offering able back-up.

Flooring Porter will be a red-hot favourite for the final leg (4.10), but I can't bank in four-runner novice chases, so Weveallbeencaught, presumably the choice of Sam Twiston-Davies, who rode Broadway Boy to success last time, goes in just in case.

Cheltenham Placepot perm

1.15
3 Haddex Des Obeaux
5 Before Midnight

1.50
2 Blueking D'Oroux

2.25
1 Kinondo Kwetu
6 Undersupervision
9 Lord Accord

3.00
2 Espoir De Romay
8 Hugos New Horse
18 Bashful Boy

3.35
1 Butch
4 Reverend Hubert

4.10
3 Flooring Porter
4 Weveallbeencaught

2x1x3x3x2x2 = 48 lines

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