The once-promising Ladbrokes Trophy contender out to bounce back for new yard

The Front Runner is Chris Cook's morning email exclusively for Members' Club Ultimate subscribers, available here as a free sample.

In Monday's email Chris looks ahead to Saturday's Ladbrokes Trophy – and subscribers can get more great insight, tips and racing chat from Chris every Monday to Friday.

Members' Club Ultimate subscribers who aren't yet signed up for The Front Runner should head to the My Account area and under Email Communication opt into 'All members-club only emails' to start receiving The Front Runner and more great exclusive email content!

Not a Members' Club Ultimate subscriber? Click here to join today and also receive our Ultimate Daily emails plus our full range of fantastic website and newspaper content, including tipping from the likes of Pricewise and Paul Kealy, all the big interviews and features, daily comment and news analysis.

One of the most interesting contenders in Saturday's Ladbrokes Trophy is Danny Whizzbang. A once-promising chaser who lost his way, he'll be having his first run for an in-form yard, with new headgear, on ground he's expected to like. He's a big price but if he makes the frame there will be no shortage of possible explanations for the improvement in form.

The major down side is that Danny Whizzbang has left Paul Nicholls' yard; the list of horses who won a major race after a move away from Ditcheat would be short. He's on a long losing run and his only win over fences came as a surprise to connections. He's had two wind operations.

But he's still young enough, at the age of eight, to improve on what he's done with the benefit of time and experience. "He seems in a good place," Milton Harris told the Front Runner on Sunday. "The plan is to run unless anything goes wrong.

"It's probably a big ask, first time, but he'll be fit enough. He's 8lb lower than he was last year.

"He's fresh and well and probably the time to catch him is fresh. If the ground stays as it is, which the forecast suggests it might, it just might cut up a bit."

Milton Harris: the in-form trainer of Danny Whizzbang has enjoyed 27 winners this seasonCredit: Nick Grimstead

Harris is having an amazing time of it this season, three years after making his comeback as a trainer. He's had 27 winners so far and is long odds-on to canter through his previous record of 32 from a decade ago.

He's maintained an excellent strike-rate of 23 per cent and there has been quality mixed in there too, Knight Salute landing a Grade 2 at Cheltenham's November meeting. His latest winner came at Exeter on Sunday and he has fancied runners at Kempton and Ludlow this afternoon, so there is every reason for him to approach each runner with optimism.

Harris tells me he and Nicholls have a good relationship from way back. When Chaninbar didn't live up to expectations, for example, Harris was able to get hold of him and eventually won the Red Rum Chase with him some years later.

"Paul recommended Danny Whizzbang to me and was straightforward about him," Harris says. The horse is now owned by a group of the trainer's existing owners. "Win, lose or draw, they've got themselves a nice horse, going forward."

'I don't need to get him fitter'

Danny Whizzbang's biggest day came two years ago at Newbury, when he won the John Francome, a Grade 2 novice chase, at the expense of Reserve Tank. It was a race that fell apart. Nicholls had planned to find a little beginners' chase for him next time. Instead, he had to go the Kauto Star, Reynoldstown route.

He didn't exactly shine in finishing a distant third in both those races. At the same time, he showed enough to suggest he could win something off his now-much-reduced handicap mark.

At Kempton, he was on the heels of leaders when his stablemate Master Tommytucker capsized and got in his way. At Ascot, he looked a potential winner until the turn for home, when he got tired on an unsuitably testing surface; he's got a 16lb pull with the eventual winner, Copperhead, for Saturday's race.

Last season was just hopeless from soup to nuts, however. Sent off 4-1 favourite for the Badger Beers, Danny Whizzbang was in trouble a long way out and was beaten 31 lengths in the end. It was his best run of the season.

"Sometimes they just need a change of scenery," Harris says. He will try some new headgear this time, cheekpieces having had no evident effect last term; he won't specify exactly what kind of headgear (blinkers are favourite) but apparently the horse worked well in it on Saturday.

Danny Whizzbang was one of many horses who took part in Newbury's gallops morning last week, spinning round under no great pressure in the company of Knowwhentoholdem, a bumper winner at Newton Abbot. "I wanted him to go and have a nice time," explains the trainer. "I don't need to get him fitter."

Mitch Bastyan, who has done so well for Harris this season, may take the ride and claim 3lb off, which he won't be able to do for much longer. The forecast remains helpfully dry, which makes Harris think Saturday's race may cut up a bit. All in all, it's going to be an interesting week for those who still hope Danny Whizzbang can produce fireworks.

One story you must read today

Radical moves to reduce BHA's power being made by horsemen and racecourses

Read these next:

What's on this week: high-grade action builds up to Ladbrokes Trophy

'Nobody saw it coming' – shock 66-1 winner among week's big winners

The Front Runner is our latest email newsletter available exclusively to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Chris Cook, a three-time Racing Reporter of the Year award winner, provides his take on the day's biggest stories and tips for the upcoming racing every morning from Monday to Friday