Make Grey Dawning a Ten to Follow banker with Betfair Chase and Gold Cup among his targets

Every year the aim is the same when it comes to the Ten To Follow and that is to find as many bonus-race winners as possible. Sometimes the races are switched season to season, but this year’s bonus events are the same as last time and that gives players some consistency.

The focus of the jumps season is always on the Cheltenham Festival and the run up to it, so it doesn’t make sense to look too far beyond March and there are six bonus races before the new year. In theory it should be easier to find the winners of those at this stage than any that come later.

Grey Dawning is hot favourite for the first bonus race, the Betfair Chase at Haydock, and he simply must be included. He was mightily impressive when winning the Turners last season and promises to be even better back over further this campaign, especially on soft ground. He could easily develop into a Gold Cup contender later in the season, too, so is banker material.

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It might be worth putting a couple into the mix for the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury because there are plenty of big staying handicap chases after that which the runners there can go for.

Dan Skelton can surely get more out of Midnight River, who shaped well under a big weight on his seasonal reappearance at Wetherby. It’s also worth including Kandoo Kid for Paul Nicholls because the eight-year-old looks certain to improve over three miles this season.

The Tingle Creek at Sandown comes up next and it’s difficult to get away from course specialist Jonbon. He is unbeaten in four starts at the track, all in Grade 1 company, and looks certain to be sent to the Esher track before Christmas. He will be hard to beat there.

The King George at Kempton is a golden chance for Il Est Francais, who won the Kauto Star over the same course and distance last season in a time 4.45 seconds quicker than Hewick in the big one itself and that equates to around 22 lengths. A reproduction of that should do it.

The last British bonus race before the new year is the Coral Welsh Grand National and I just can’t get last year’s winner out of my head. Nassalam turned the race into a procession on his favourite testing ground and would have won under any weight, so may be able to repeat that.

That gets us to six without Constitution Hill or any Irish-trained runners. I’m going to leave Constitution Hill out because he doesn’t run often enough and will give dual Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs a miss too. It will be remarkable if he wins everything again.

I prefer the up-and-comers so will give Lossiemouth the vote as my two-mile hurdler and stick with the JP McManus-owned pair of Fact To File and Inothewayurthinkin in the Gold Cup.

That leaves one remaining space and a bit of a dilemma. Is it worth putting in Teahupoo in the hope that he dominates the staying division again or should I look for a horse who will turn out more often? Teahupoo ran only twice in the duration of last season’s competition.

That puts me off including Teahupoo so let’s go with last season’s Arkle winner Gaelic Warrior, who has loads of talent and looks as though he will be the Willie Mullins first string for this season’s Champion Chase. He’s also in the King George and would have a chance there.

Graeme Rodway's Ten to Follow

Fact To File
Grey Dawning
Gaelic Warrior
Il Est Francais
Inothewayurthinkin
Jonbon
Kandoo Kid
Lossiemouth
Midnight River
Nassalam

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