Five under the radar horses to follow across the jumps season The Flat turf season has almost come to an end and it’s time for the jumps to take centre stage, which will be great news for those fans who have been hibernating over the summer. We all know which superstars are going to be on display this season, but we’ve picked out five horses who may have snuck under the radar somewhat and have the potential to go far throughout the campaign. These include a Paul Nicholls horse whose hurdling career was a bit of a slow burner but could be one to watch now embarking on a novice chase campaign. Myretown The money came for Lucinda Russell’s Myretown in the Ultima at the Cheltenham Festival in March and his supporters weren’t disappointed. Patrick Wadge made all the running aboard the eight-year-old and the challengers fell away one by one. You would imagine he’s more than a handicapper on that evidence and it will be exciting to see how far he can rise up the ranks this season. There should be plenty more to come and he’s definitely one to watch. Regent’s Stroll Regent’s Stroll won a valuable bumper at Newbury a couple of seasons ago and expectations were very high for this son of Walk In The Park. A little hit and miss at times last season, he put it all together to run very well in the Mersey Novices' Hurdle at Aintree in the Spring, where he finished second. Paul Nicholls’ horses almost always improve for fences and it will be disappointing if he’s not bang in the mix for Britain’s Grade 1 novice races across the season. The Jukebox Man Ben Pauling’s stable star The Jukebox Man showed a significant amount of promise as a hurdler and confirmed that with some excellent performances as a novice chaser last term. He won the Grade 1 Kauto Star Novices’ Chase on his second start over fences at Christmas, before injury ended his campaign prematurely. Connections have lofty expectations, but it would be good to see him in a big handicap before that, with races like the Paddy Power and Coral Gold Cup often proving to be good springboards for careers in graded races. Gameball Henry de Bromhead has made an excellent start to the autumn campaign and first choice jockey Darragh O’Keeffe is flying high at the top of the jockeys’ championship in Ireland. Gameball bolted up in a Ballinrobe bumper for previous connections and won a maiden hurdle in good style on his first start for De Bromhead at Punchestown last month. The way in which he travelled throughout the race was very impressive and he could turn out to be a very smart novice hurdler this season. El Cairos David Maxwell’s dispersal sale provided a unique opportunity to snap up some nice horses and Gordon Elliott went to £410,000 to buy smart bumper performer El Cairos. He finished fifth in the Champion Bumper for Gary & Josh Moore, so expectations will be high this season. Elliott likes what he sees so far and fully expects this son of No Risk At All to be up there with the best of his novice hurdle prospects. Certainly one for your trackers, the strapping chestnut has a big price tag to pay back and should be winning some nice races.
