Cheltenham Festival tips: 50-1 chance and more from Dave Nevison

I take the point that it might be foolish to take on the Irish trainers in these Cheltenham Festival handicaps -  especially with a 10-year-old that is 5lbs higher in the weights than when he won last time - but Emitom still looks like one who can run well at a price. 

He has been lightly-raced in recent seasons and was largely disappointing when tried over fences, but he looks to have settled in very well at the yard and won in a style at Newbury last time suggesting that he might still have more to offer.

Emitom certainly stayed the trip very well over hurdles there and will be doing his best work in the closing stages here. 

The dream for the smaller trainer of Cheltenham Festival glory is just about still alive and I'm having a few quid on the stable here in the hope that the reapplication of cheekpieces wakens up Straw Fan Jack for the first time in recent runs. 

Straw Fan Jack beat a Gordon Elliott favourite and subsequent Galway Plate winner when landing a Grade Two novice event on the Old Course here at the start of last season Novice on the Old course here and the nine-year-old was campaigned almost entirely in Graded races after that. He ran with credit but may well have been overfaced and might have lost his enthusiasm. 

Back in a handicap now and off a very fair mark, if he has been freshened up by a short break he could go very well at a huge price.

My admiration for Gavin Cromwell as a target trainer has been repeated ad nauseum in this column, but he looks to have surpassed himself in this traditional Cheltenham feature. 

Inothewayurthinkin is definitely going plenty better than a 145-rated chaser in my view but is pegged at that mark for now, which is ideal for this 0-145 contest. If the handicapper could reassess him after his latest place I am sure he would already have him rated higher, as he ran third behind Gaelic Warrior and Il Etait Temps - first and second in the Arkle on Tuesday - so  JP McManus’ very promising sic-year-old is definitely among the highest-ranking novice chasers.

A line can be drawn through his latest run - he never showed after a mistake at the first and was certainly not knocked about - and the perennially excellent Derek O’Connor is booked to ride. 

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