Exciting Paul Nicholls trio and select Long Distance Hurdle means Newbury card has a classy look to it

It can often be a case of feast or famine in the early stages of the jumps season and we have examples of both at Newbury, which has attracted just four runners for the Coral Long Distance Hurdle (3.05).

The race is hardly known as a betting heat with massive fields, having only once been contested by ten or more horses in the last decade, but it has nevertheless still proved to be a great spectacle and has been won by plenty of familiar names, such as Big Buck's, Thistlecrack and Paisley Park, whose absence from major staying hurdles this season after his retirement in March will take some getting used to.

A maximum field of four are also set to go to post for the Grade 1 Bar One Racing Hatton's Grace Hurdle at Fairyhouse on Sunday, which should provide some useful insight into the wellbeing of Stayers' Hurdle winner Teahupoo. He sets the standard in this division but the Long Distance Hurdle presents an opportunity for two of Britain's leading Stayers' Hurdle contenders to lay down their own markers.