Paul Kealy's play of the day at Cheltenham

Hugos New Horse
3.00 Cheltenham

The horse with the potential to blow the Pertemps Network Handicap Hurdle (3.00) apart is surely the British-trained Hugos New Horse, who looked a strong stayer almost every time he ran last season and could well have another fruitful campaign for Paul Nicholls.

Hugos New Horse is a half-brother to the yard's Black Corton, who was incredibly consistent for most of his career and won a stack of races over 3m over fences, and his younger sibling evidently takes after him on the reliability front.

A winner of the first of his two bumpers, he won five of his seven hurdles starts last season, and hit the first three in the other two, the third coming under a big weight in the EBF Final on bottomless ground at Sandown.

Hugos New Horse evidently has no problems with any ground as he has won on good to firm, and it was quick enough when he closed last season with a win in an Ayr novice.

There he showed how much potential he has as a stayer as he looked in trouble three out in the straight, but won going away at the end, and he surely has to improve for a trip.

As always there's a danger of horses just trying to sneak into the first four to qualify for the final in March (last year's fourth here was runner-up in the final having not run again since), but it's just not Nicholls' style to waste five months with a horse handicapped to win races now and I'd expect him to be tuned up well enough.

Hugos New Horse15:00 Cheltenham

View Racecard

Jky: Harry Cobden Tnr: Paul Nicholls

Read these next:

'He will surely improve for this step up in trip' - Paul Kealy had a 9-2 winner at Cheltenham on Friday and returns with five fancies 

The Punt Acca: Matt Rennie's three horse racing tips from Cheltenham and Doncaster on ITV on Saturday  

Saturday's free racing tips: six horses to consider putting in your multiples  

Get set for the jumps! Join Members' Club now with 50% off just in time for the Big Jump Off and our brilliant stable tours 

The jumps season is coming! Pick up your copy of The Big Jump Off, out now and packed with everything you need for the 2023-24 National Hunt season. Our brilliant 72-page supplement, including ante-post tips, guest columnists, top trainer profiles, divisional analysis and much more, is available to order from the Racing Post shop here.