Dave Nevison: My horse racing tips for day one at Cheltenham

Our resident website tipster Dave Nevison has three tips lined up for day one of the November Meeting at Cheltenham. Enjoy every moment of the big fixture live on Racing TV and Racing TV Extra.

1.10 Cheltenham: Hardy Boy

Ben Pauling has his horses in good form and Hardy Boy looks set to run well at a decent price under the yard’s promising conditional Beau Morgan.

Despite the relatively low prize money for a handicap at Cheltenham this race is seemingly a real target affair with another massive field lining up this time.

The race has not been won by a big-priced runner in recent years and it would be no surprise to see Enki Flacke have a big say given he has has tons of experience yet makes his handicap debut for Gordon Elliott and looks potentially chucked in off a mark of 122.

Yet Hardy Boy might be more value if you can get on each-way with extra places as he looked to be improving rapidly last spring with two wins in four days. He was a bit rusty on his reappearance two weeks ago despite being well-backed and hopefully he will do better here having been dropped 2lb with his young jockey able to claim a very valuable 8lb.

1.45 Cheltenham: Grey Diamond

Sam Thomas is my go-to trainer for decent handicap chases these days and he certainly looks to have another live one in the Dai Walters colours here.

Grey Diamond’s season was cut short last term after a bad mistake (when still travelling well) at Wincanton which caused him to sprawl and he presumably hurt himself. While he hasn’t been seen since January he ran his best completed race on his reappearance last term and, with his stable in such good form, I am more than happy to take the risk.

Al Dancer – winner of the Grand Sefton for us at Aintree on Saturday - was very well-backed, so a similar market move would be a good indicator, but I do not think Grey Diamond would be running off this mark if he had stood up at Wincanton and I believe he is a well-handicapped horse setting out this season.

4.00 Cheltenham: Master Dancer

His opening mark for handicaps looks very fair.

Master Dancer had been off the course for almost a year before he made his British debut early last month for Richard Bandey and he won very nicely at Stratford having been quite well-backed – with a useful next-time out winner back in third.

Master Dancer has good experience for a five-year-old having already won over fences as well as hurdles and he does seem to be at his best away from very soft ground so conditions should be ideal here.

This is clearly an extremely competitive big-field handicap but Master Dancer might be considerably improved by a move to the Bandey yard and he certainly wouldn’t be the first horse to do so.