Alco A Hennessy Treat

Ferdy Murphy is renowned for targeting his horses at major prizes and coming away with the spoils, but his string do not usually fire on all cylinders until the major spring festivals arrive.

Hot Weld won the Scottish National and Betfred Gold Cup towards the end of last season, while Joes Edge took the William Hill Chase and L'Antartique the Jewson at Cheltenham.

And further big wins for Aces Four and Another Promise at Aintree and Punchestown respectively highlight the point again.

But because of his impressive tally of successes, Murphy now has a stronger string than ever, and as a result, he is already banging in the big winners.

That makes things a lot easier from an ante-post perspective, and means we can get stuck in to New Alco in the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup at Newbury on December 1.

As we have already advised David Pipe's Dom D'Orgeval at 16-1 (he is down to 12s with most firms), we are in a reasonable position.

Over 30 horses were taken out of the race at the first forfeit stage this week, leaving us with a clearer view of the likely field.

And with the form Murphy is in at present, New Alco is simply impossible to ignore.

It used to be one of the worst kept secrets in racing that Murphy's law was to give his horses a preparatory run or two before they ran in their major target race.

But as he has shown with L'Antartique this season, he has sprung to action much earlier.

L'Antartique won on his seasonal reappearance at Carlisle before adding the Paddy Power Gold Cup to his impressive CV, and New Alco has enjoyed an identical preparation for the Hennessy.

Also at Carlisle, he beat a smart field on the bridle, pulling clear of the highly-regarded Idle Talk for an 11-length success.

He won that day off a mark of 140 and picked up a 6lb penalty, which is not a bad thing as he won with much more in hand and is now certain to make the cut.

Undoubtedly, Murphy will have left a lot to work on as normal, so the fact he won on his first start of the season bodes very well indeed.

Only six, he showed some really smart form in defeat on numerous occasions last season, most notably when third in the Paddy Power to Exotic Dancer and second in the Ladbrokes Trophy to Whispered Secret.

He still appears to be improving, the extra distance will put his jumping under less pressure and with Graham Lee likely to be on board, we could not have a jockey riding with more confidence.

New Alco can still be backed at 7-1 with most bookmakers, behind likely top-weight Denman and David Pipe's rapidly-improving Abragante, and that still appears to represent decent value.

(C) PA Sport