'We're excited about him - we hope he's a Graded horse and we're working back from the Cheltenham Festival'

A third consecutive record season is top of the agenda for the fast-growing Anthony Honeyball stable – and he is already halfway there.

A tally of 42 winners is the benchmark but it is already in touching distance after a flying start, which has come at an impressive strike-rate of 20 per cent.

Honeyball's time as conditional jockey to Paul Nicholls has clearly left its mark as the trainer is one with a focus on prize-money and his search for lucrative pots was rewarded with a haul of £760,665 last season – up over a quarter of a million from the previous campaign. That was driven by big handicap wins in the Coral Trophy, Veterans' Chase Final and Badger Beer, helping Honeyball to a staggering career strike-rate of 20 per cent in handicaps, which is well above most leading yards in Britain and Ireland.