Dave Nevison's Cheltenham tips for Friday: three best bets

As is often the case, the Twiston-Davies team arrive at Cheltenham's October meeting in good form, and The Expensive One is from a family that is forever associated with the yard. 

This lightly-raced five-year-old still has plenty of upside after just three runs over hurdles, and he showed the benefit of his September reappearance when winning nicely at Stratford last time out 

The way he dug in towards the finish in that race suggests he will be better suited by this step up in trip on a stiffer track, and he appears to still be well handicapped off a 5lb higher mark, which means he has a low weight in this competitive contest. He has plenty going for him here, and is chalked up at best-priced 12-1, at the time of writing. 

I will be keeping an eye on the riders as much as the horses in this race as many of them are going to be making names for themselves this winter. 

Nathan Howie was riding in France but is already making a big impression by riding for James Owen who, in my opinion, is the hottest trainer in the National Hunt game, and the pair team up with a potentially well-handicapped performer here.

Charging Thunder has largely been running well off marks in the mid 90’s on the Flat this summer and reverts to hurdles off a rating of just 115, so it is not difficult to see his upside. 

He won on his first two hurdle outings last year and although he did get beat on his handicap debut at Doncaster, he didn’t get the best of runs plus has certainly improved on the flat since. 

I expect him to confirm that improvement over jumps in the coming weeks. 

Calico has made his seasonal return at Cheltenham for the past three seasons, and finished second on two of those outings plus won this race last year, so it is highly likely he will be spot on for a repeat bid on Friday. 

He is only 4lb higher now and finished a light campaign last season with an excellent second at Aintree, so still looks to be on a fair mark. 

The only slight worry would be if Cheltenham was hit by a deluge and the ground became testing. I would have no concerns on good to soft, though, which it is now (at the time of writing) and I imagine the Skelton team will be wanting to kick off the new season at Cheltenham with a victory.