'He could take high rank over fences' - Paul Kealy with five novice chasers to follow this season

The Big Jump Off, packed with everything you need for the 2024-25 National Hunt season, is out now and available to order from the Racing Post Shop here.

Our 72-page supplement features ante-post tips, betting insight, trainer and jockey analysis and much more, including Paul Kealy's expert insight into the novice chase division, which is available to read below.

The Big Jump Off is also available via the Racing Post Digital Newspaper as part of Members' Club Ultimate, our unrivalled subscription package.

• 'He's going to prove thrown in' - Paul Kealy has 5-1, 12-1 and 33-1 ante-post tips for the jumps season 

Better Days Ahead

Trainer Gordon Elliott
Best hurdles Racing Post Rating 147

The 11th foal of a mare who has produced some winners by his sire Milan, but he is already by some margin the best of them, and there is every hope he will continue the excellent record of winners of the Martin Pipe at Cheltenham when they go over fences later in their careers.

The race has been won by the likes of Sir Des Champs, Don Poli, Killultagh Vic, Galopin Des Champs and Banbridge, and there’s no reason to think the most recent running wasn’t a top quality affair. The Martin Pipe is renowned as one of the plot races of the season, and despite there being 21 runners, the first six home were the first six in the betting and the first four had pulled 12 lengths clear of the rest.

Better Days Ahead: Martin Pipe winner could take high rank in the novice chase divisionCredit: John Grossick

Better Days Ahead was a commanding winner as well. He could not make a successful jump into Grade 1 company when only third in the Channor Real Estate Group Novice Hurdle at Punchestown, but ran well enough in that 3m contest considering he was keen enough, and if he takes to fences he could take high rank.

Caldwell Potter

Trainer Paul Nicholls
Best hurdles RPR 152

A half-brother to the same owners’ ill-fated four-time Grade 1 winner (two hurdles, two chases) Mighty Potter, Caldwell Potter was the apple of Gordon Elliott’s eye last season and it was easy to see why as he quickly gave notice that he was a readymade replacement for his sibling.

Having finished second when reportedly needing the run in maiden company at Punchestown in November, he made no mistake next time at Navan, and then thrashed Predators Gold by six and a half lengths on his Grade 1 debut in the Future Champions Novice Hurdle, a race Mighty Potter had won in 2021.

Unfortunately for Elliott, owners Andy and Gemma Brown decided to get out of racing, and a bidding war ensued for the much sought-after gelding, who was knocked down for a public auction record of €740,000 to a syndicate involving Sir Alex Ferguson, John Hales and Ged Mason (Elliott’s final bid was 720k, so he was clearly very keen to keep him), and there was only one destination for the grey after that.

Caldwell Potter: fetched €740,000 at auction earlier this yearCredit: Morgan Treacy

Keen not to rush him, Paul Nicholls pretty much immediately ruled him out of the Cheltenham Festival, and while he was declared for the Mersey Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree, he didn’t make the line-up. Obviously has a huge price tag to live up to now, but is clearly one of the most exciting chase recruits this season.

Majborough

Trainer Willie Mullins
Best hurdles RPR 147

A winner of his sole hurdles outing for Daniela Mele at Auteuil in April 2023, Majborough was the subject of some gossip before making his debut for Willie Mullins in the Grade 1 Spring Juvenile at Leopardstown in February, and he certainly looked the part in the parade ring. However, he proved noticeably weak in the market, and he could manage only third to stablemates Kargese and Storm Heart.

With the front five covered by less than three lengths, it didn’t look the hottest juvenile form around as next time out Majborough beat Kargese in second in the Triumph Hurdle while Storm Heart was fifth, although the longtime ante-post favourite Sir Gino did not make the lineup. Still, it’s hard to quibble too much with the strength of the form given Kargese went on to land the big four-year-old hurdle at Punchestown and fourth-placed Nurburgring bolted up by seven lengths in the Galway Hurdle off a mark of 139.

Hurdling was never going to be his game, though, so it’s a quick switch to fences, and he’s clearly going to take the world of beating when getting the four-year-old allowance, and might take a lot of beating full stop.

Majborough (right) could take advantage of the weight allowance for four-year-old novice chasersCredit: John Grossick

Dancing City

Trainer Willie Mullins
Best hurdles RPR 151

Point winner who won only one bumper but was a creditable second to Ballyburn in another and, following a maiden hurdle win on his second outing last season, surprised a host of his own stablemates, including runner-up Predators Gold, when winning the Nathaniel Lacy & Partners Solicitors Novice Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival.

That form was turned around at Cheltenham as he could manage only third in the Albert Bartlett to the strong-staying Stellar Story (fourth at Leopardstown), but Dancing City finished on a high, winning 3m Grade 1s at both Aintree and Punchestown.

Dancing City: three-time Grade 1-winning hurdler and an exciting novice chase prospectCredit: Caroline Norris

Clearly stays well and would have been an ideal candidate for the National Hunt Chase until it became a handicap, but he’s second favourite behind Ballyburn for the Brown Advisory and clearly has the potential to be a top-class performer.

Ballyburn

Trainer Willie Mullins
Best hurdles RPR 166

Unbeaten in a point and two bumpers, recording very good form in the latter sphere, Ballyburn was expected to be one of Willie Mullins’ better novice hurdlers and he certainly didn’t disappoint despite being beaten by Firefox when a 10-11 chance on his debut at Fairyhouse in December. A 25-length maiden success followed, and after that it was Grade 1 company all the way and he won all three of them.

Ballyburn: what will his Cheltenham target be?Credit: Edward Whitaker

He started over 2m at the Dublin Racing Festival with a seven-length drubbing of subsequent Supreme Novices’ winner Slade Steel, who only took that route at Cheltenham because Ballyburn had been confirmed for the Gallagher Novices’ Hurdle instead. Sent off at 1-2, Ballyburn turned that into a procession, winning by 13 lengths, and while nowhere near that form when following up at Punchestown, he wasn’t hard-pressed to win.

His Cheltenham success earned him an official rating of 162, which makes him the fourth-highest rated novice hurdler – behind Constitution Hill, Iris’s Gift and The New One – since the Anglo-Irish jumps classifications began in the 1999-2000 season, so it’s fair to say a lot is expected of him as he makes the switch.

What his target will be at Cheltenham is the big question as everyone expected him to be aimed at the Turners, which is now a handicap, and his options now lie over 2m and 3m. Ballyburn certainly showed plenty of speed over hurdles, so he is top-priced only at 3-1 for the Arkle, but he is a full brother to several strong stayers over fences, including one at 3m4f, and it’s probably only a matter of time before he starts living up to his pedigree and starts to need a trip. He’s 6-1 for the Brown Advisory if you think that will be this season.

Racing Post Members' Club Ultimate

It's that tantalising time of year when the jumps season gets into full swing and Racing Post Members' Club has everything you need to make the most of the winter – including a fabulous sign-up offer of 50% off for your first three months.

As has become tradition for racing followers, we're about to launch the jumps season proper. The Big Jump Off, our 72-page jumps season guide, is out now and our ever-popular stable tour series is up and running courtesy of Seven Barrows supremo Nicky Henderson.

Then the treats will keep coming thick and fast as the nights draw in and we edge ever closer to the extravaganza that is the Cheltenham Festival, including:

• Stable tours with the top trainers in the sport, starting with Nicky Henderson (available online to subscribers at 6pm on Monday)
• A new weekly column from pro punter Mark Holder on the horses you should be following and the horses to avoid (starts on Tuesday, October 29)
• Regular Ante-Post Pricewise columns in which Tom Segal picks out the early value in the season's biggest races, kicking off with the Coral Gold Cup on Wednesday, November 6
• Interviews with the sport's key players and investigations into the crucial issues in our weekly Big Read

Plus you'll get our regular daily dose of top tipping from the sport's top judges, led by Segal and Paul Kealy, as well as golf's greatest tipster Steve Palmer, whose advice on the week's golf tournament is now exclusively available to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers from 2pm every Tuesday. On top of that, you get a range of newsletters every day, including Chris Cook's award-winning The Front Runner, the best of our news and racecourse reporting, race replays and analysis of every race run in Britain and Ireland, and our brilliant Horse Tracker.

Read these next:

'Ronnie Bartlett assures us he's in the same category as Simonsig and Ballyburn' - five Nicky Henderson dark horses for the season 

'He is obviously a machine but I think JP McManus has a serious squad' - the big jumps season question answered 

Are you for or against Constitution Hill at 7-4 for the Champion Hurdle? Our experts have their say 

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